SCAC Announces 2015 All-Conference Football Team

SCAC Announces 2015 All-Conference Football Team

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – In exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), Trenton White of Texas Lutheran University was selected as the league's Offensive Player-of-the-Year while Julian Turner of Trinity University was voted the league's Defensive Player-of-the-Year for the second consecutive year. Complete Release

In the same balloting, Jekovan Holmes of Texas Lutheran was named the SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year while Nik Kelly of Southwestern University and Cooper Woodyard of Austin College split the vote to share Special Teams Player-of-the-Year honors. Danny Padron of Texas Lutheran was selected as the league's Coach-of-the-Year for the third consecutive season.

Trenton White, a 5-9, 165-pound senior quarterback from Sachse, Texas, led the SCAC in almost every passing category, including yards (2,460), yards per game (246.0), completions (207 – TLU single-season record), attempts (330), completion percentage (62.7 percent) and touchdowns (27). The Bulldogs averaged a conference-high 40.9 points (23rd in the nation) and 480.8 yards per game with him under center (25th in the nation). White finishes his four years in Seguin as TLU's career leader in touchdown passes (61) and is second in both yards passing (5,874) and completion percentage (60.17%). His 53 career touchdown passes while a member of the SCAC rank as the 10th most in conference history. A two-time First Team All-SCAC quarterback and a four-time Offensive Player-of-the-Week during the 2015 season, White is the third consecutive Bulldog to earn SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year honors, following Brent Peavy in 2013 and current teammate Marquis Barrolle in 2014.

Julian Turner, a 6-1, 215-pound junior linebacker from Katy, Texas, finished second in the SCAC and led the Tigers with 109 tackles (10.9 per game), including a league-leading 55 solo efforts. He also had 15 tackles for loss (second in the SCAC), four sacks (tied for sixth in the SCAC) and seven QB hurries. He was the SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Week the final weekend of the season as he and the Trinity defense held Austin College to just 135 yards of total offense and 57 rushing yards. He and the Trinity defense led the SCAC in both yards allowed (279.5 per game – 19th in the nation) and points allowed (15.3 points per game – 20th in the nation). Turner's selection as SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year represents the eighth consecutive year that a linebacker has won or shared the league's top defensive honor, but he is the first back-to-back winner of the award since Will Hawkins of Millsaps College (2009 and 2010) and just the fourth repeat winner in conference history.

Jekovan Holmes, a 6-0, 186-pound freshman receiver from San Antonio, Texas, led the SCAC in both receptions (45) and touchdown receptions (14) and was second in both receiving yards (646) and receiving yards per game (64.6). He is the first freshman since 1995 (Wes Ingram of Millsaps) and just the second in the SCAC era to lead the league in receptions and his 14 TD catches are the fifth-most in a single-season in league history. Holmes had at least one TD catch in every game he played this season – with the exception of the Bulldogs' season finale against Southwestern – and had two games where he had three TD receptions, including a nine-catch, 78-yard performance in a Week 5 homecoming win against Howard Payne University where he was named SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week. Holmes is the second TLU player to earn SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year honors, following Tyler Figol who received the honor following the 2013 season.

Nik Kelly, a 5-7, 170-pound sophomore punt returner/receiver from League City, Texas, backed up his Newcomer-of-the-Year award from a year ago with another impressive season in 2015. Kelly averaged 10.5 yards per punt return, including a 52-yard return for a TD against Austin College on Oct. 3 which was the first punt return for a TD by a SCAC player since the 2012 season. He was also on the receiving end of a 74-yard fake punt touchdown play against Trinity (Nov. 7) which was later named the D3football.com Play-of-the-Week. He ended the season with three receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Additionally, the versatile Kelly had 19 tackles (17 solo), three interceptions and seven pass break-ups from his starting position in the Pirates' defensive secondary. In Southwestern's three-year stint in the conference since reinstating the sport, Kelly is the first Pirate to take home Special Teams Player-of-the-Year honors.

Splitting the vote and sharing Special Teams Player-of-the-Year honors with Kelly is Austin College's Cooper Woodyard. A 6-2, 220-pound junior punter from The Woodlands, Texas, Woodyard led the SCAC in punting, averaging 37.8 yards per boot (63 punts for 2,382 yards) for the highest single-season average since 2011. He put 12 of his attempts inside the 20 (second in the SCAC) and 15 of his punts were fair caught. He was even better in conference games, averaging 39.3 yards per punt with five of his 21 attempts being downed inside the 20. After converting from wide receiver, Woodyard was also the 'Roos opening-day starting quarterback this season and finished the 2015 campaign with 1,648 yards passing and 13 TDs while rushing for 444 yards and four TDs. Since the institution joined the SCAC prior to the 2006 season, he is the first Austin College player to be named Special Teams Player-of-the-Year.

Texas Lutheran head coach Danny Padron led his Bulldogs to an 8-2 overall mark and a perfect 3-0 conference record for the third consecutive season. Texas Lutheran finished the regular season ranked 17th in the nation according to D3football.com. Although the program missed out on its second consecutive postseason appearance, this year's class of graduating Bulldogs will leave campus with a win-loss record of 29-11 (11-5 in conference play) – the best win-loss record of any class in the school's history (DIII era). Padron, who inherited a program that went 0-10 in 2009, has amassed a 38-22 record in his six years at the helm in Seguin, including a 25-5 mark since joining the SCAC. It is the third consecutive year that he has been honored as SCAC Coach-of-the-Year – making Padron the first conference football coach to achieve that feat since Trinity's Steve Mohr was named COTY in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

To read the complete 2015 All-SCAC Football Team release, click here.

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