Hall, Briscoe named preseason all-America
6/14/2017 3:01:00 PM | Football
Link To Complete Athlon Sports FCS Preseason All-America Team
HUNTSVILLE – With the 2017 football season right around the corner, preseason accolades have already begun to come in for the Sam Houston State Bearkats as quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe and defensive lineman P.J. Hall were each named to the Athlon Sports FCS Preseason All-America team on Wednesday.
Briscoe and Hall are two of the 23 seniors to comprise the team, and justifiably so after standout junior seasons. Sam Houston, along with South Dakota State, Jacksonville State, North Dakota State and North Carolina A&T were the five schools to land multiple players on the squad.
The Bearkat quarterback claimed the Walter Payton Award in 2016, becoming the first player in program and Southland Conference history to do so. That came after a season that saw him set a new FCS record with 57 touchdown passes, breaking the old record of 56 which had stood since 1984.
Briscoe 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 earned him multiple all-America and Southland Conference Player of the Year honors.
On the other side of the ball, Hall has been one of the top defensive players in all of FCS over the last three years, finishing second in the voting for the Buck Buchanan Award in 2016, an honor which is given to the top defensive player in the FCS. He 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 was named to all-America squads by multiple outlets in 2016 and finished the season with 11 sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss, a mark which was second highest in the nation. He was the first Bearkat defender to be invited to the STATS FCS banquet as a top-three finalist for the Buchanan Award.
Briscoe, Hall and the rest of the Bearkats will open up the 2017 season on August 27 at Bowers Stadium when they host perennial FCS power Richmond. The game is set to be aired live on ESPNU.
