STATS FCS Banquet Set For Friday
1/5/2017 10:38:00 AM | Football
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – After a historical 2016 season for Sam Houston State football, the 2017 calendar year could be starting off on a historical note of its own for the Bearkats going into Friday evening's STATS FCS Awards Banquet.
No team will be represented more prominently than the Bearkats in Frisco on Jan. 6, the eve before the FCS Championship Game. Five awards will be given out at the banquet with the Kats guaranteed at least one trip to the podium, while two others will need to have acceptance speeches ready to go.
Head coach K.C. Keeler, quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe and defensive end P.J. Hall will all be in attendance in Frisco with Eastern Washington the only other school to have multiple personnel up for honors at the banquet.
Keeler will be honored as the winner of the Eddie Robinson Award as the top head coach in the FCS, making him the third Southland Conference coach and first Bearkat head man to claim the award. He led the Kats to a national No. 1 ranking for the final six weeks of the regular season and had Sam Houston entering the FCS playoffs as the only unbeaten team left in the country.
But he is not the only Bearkat who could walk away with an award with both Briscoe and Hall there as awards finalists as well. Briscoe is up for the Walter Payton Award, given to the top offensive player in the FCS and is joining former Bearkat quarterback Dustin Long as the only two players from Sam Houston to ever earn an invite to the award ceremony as a top-three finisher.
Briscoe likely enters the ceremony after setting a new FCS record with 57 touchdown passes, breaking the old record of 56 which had stood since 1984. The junior from Stafford, Texas, had four games in which he threw for at least six scores and two games with seven touchdowns. Those feats, along with throwing for 4,602 yards and completing nearly 63 percent of his passes has earned him multiple all-America and Southland Conference Player of the Year honors.
He will be joined at the ceremony as finalists by Eastern Washington teammates Gage Gubrud and Cooper Kupp. The Eagle duo shared Big Sky Co-Offensive Player of the Year honors and led the Eastern to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs.
Kupp is the reigning Walter Payton Award winner and led the FCS with 117 receptions and 1,700 receiving yards to go with 19 total touchdowns. He owns the Division I career record for receptions (428), receiving yards (6,464) and touchdown receptions (73). Meanwhile, Gubrud's resume is nothing to slouch at either as the Eastern trigger man set the FCS single-season record for passing yards with 5,160 and led the FCS in total offense (411.9 ypg) to go with 53 total touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, Hall is one of three finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award, which is given to the top defensive player in the FCS. The junior defensive end became the third Bearkat to win the Southland Conference's Defensive Player of the Year honor after a season in which he was clearly the league's most dominant defensive presence.
Hall has also been named to all-America squads by multiple outlets and finished the season with 11 sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss, a mark which is second highest in the nation. He is the first Bearkat defender to be invited to the banquet as a top-three finalist.
He will be opposed by a pair of defensive standouts from the Missouri Valley Football Conference in Missouri State's Dylan Cole and Northern Iowa's Karter Schult.
Cole had at least 13 tackles in nine games this season and led the FCS with 142 total tackles. He also picked off a pair of passes and forced three fumbles on his way to all-America and first team all-MVFC honors.
Meanwhile, Schult was named the MVFC Defensive Player of the Year and is a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy. The defensive end paced all of the FCS with 17 sacks while also racking up 24 tackles for loss.
Other awards which will be handed out in Frisco include the Jerry Rice Award (top freshman) and the Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award. Duqesne running back A.J. Hines will be presented with the Jerry Rice Award, one that saw Sam Houston's Nathan Stewart finish third in the final voting.
Eastern Kentucky quarterback Tyler Swafford will be honored as the recipient of the Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award.
