Tiffin had five major individual award winners as the GMAC All Football honors were announced.
Posted: Nov 22, 2019
To the victor go the spoils, and Tiffin University's GMAC Championship season was reflected in the announcement of the All GMAC Football Team.
JaQuan Hardy was named Player of the Year to lead the individual honors for the 9-1 GMAC Champions. Nick Watson was also named Offensive Player of the Year, while Stanley Jackson Jr. was named Offensive Back of the Year. Defensively Charlie Cleveland was named Defensive Lineman of the Year, while Cris Reisert was named Coach of the Year after guiding the Dragons to the title in his debut season.
Tiffin boasted 9 First Team picks along with 7 Second Team selections. Added to TU's 6 Honorable Mention nods, Tiffin had a total of 22 All Conference honorees.
JaQuan Hardy ranks first in the GMAC at 140.5 rush yards per game and second with 14 rushing touchdowns. Of running backs with at least 45 attempts, he leads the conference at 7.9 yards per carry. In Division II, he is seventh in yards per carry, sixth in rushing yards per game, and 12th in rushing touchdowns. Hardy is knocking on the door of the GMAC single-season rushing yard record of 1,554 yards set by Findlay's Daouda Sylla in 2017. With 1,405 yards on the ground, the redshirt junior needs 150 to surpass the mark. He is also currently in line to break the single-season yards per game and yards per carry conference records.
Nick Watson ranks in the top two in in multiple GMAC categories with 186 completions, 2602 yards, 260.2 yards per game, 28 touchdowns, and a 160.3 efficiency rating. Nationally, he is 8th in passing touchdowns, 14th in passing yards per game, 25th in completions per game, 16th in passing efficiency, and 20th in completion percentage. During this season, Watson has moved into the top four in every career passing category in the TU record books, currently ranking second in yards, third in completions and touchdowns, and fourth in attempts.
In his first year with the Dragons after three seasons at Ashland, Stanley Jackson Jr. leads the conference in receiving yards with 1,093, over 100 more than the next wideout despite having played either one or two less games than the rest of the top five. His average of 121.4 yards per game is fourth nationally, 11 touchdowns is 16th in DII, and 6.9 receptions per game is 12th in the country.
Defensive end Charlie Cleveland has terrorized opposing offensive lines all season, as the sophomore is second in the GMAC in both tackles for loss with 15.5 and sacks with 8.5. He also ranks second on the Dragons with 55 total tackles.
First-year head coach Cris Reisert is enjoying the best first season as a head coach in program history by far. With a 9-1 record, the next closest mark is 6-5, which was achieved during Nate Cole's first year with the program in 2003. Reisert's .900 winning percentage in his one season is also the highest in program history, with Cole also being second in the category at .655 (36-19) in five seasons from 2003-07.
Other First Team picks include wide receiver Devin Butler (who also was First Team Kick Returner), offensive linemen Warsame Aden and Trent Clark, and defensive back Carrington Contee.
Devin Butler is also in the top 10 in the conference in receiving, ranking ninth with 56.3 yards per game on 42 catches and four touchdowns. Butler also makes a significant mark in the kick return game, averaging 31.2 yards per kick return on 18 attempts, an average that is good enough for seventh nationally. He is one of just seven players in Division II with multiple kick return TDs, tied for second nationally with two on the season.Aden and Clark helped man a powerful offensive machine on the line. TU led the conference in both points per game (44.4) and total yards per game (518.3). Those marks are also 9th and 6th in Division II, respectively. Tiffin does it both on the ground and through the air, ranking 23rd nationally in passing offense at 269.3 yards per game and 15th in rushing offense at 249.0 yards per game. As a team, the Dragons have run for over 200 yards in all eight games of their current win streak, including two games of over 300 yards on the ground. TU has scored 29 rushing touchdowns, tops in the conference, for an average of nearly three per game. Tiffin's 269.3 passing yards per game leads the GMAC and 28 touchdowns is second by one to Findlay. Four different wideouts have over 20 receptions, more than 300 receiving yards, and at least three touchdowns on the year.
Second Team picks for TU include offensive linemen Will Galbraith and Zak Hill, defensive linemen Latrell Robinson and A.J. Wright, linebackers Zach Goecke and Ross Moore, and defensive back Tyler Richardson.Tiffin also leads the GMAC in total defense with 333.9 yards allowed per game and ranks second in scoring defense at 20.8 points allowed per game. The Dragons allowed seven or less points in four games this season, including a shutout of Walsh on Sept. 21.
Safety Carrington Contee leads the Dragons with 71 tackles and four interceptions on the year. His mark of four picks is also fourth in the conference. The senior has had an excellent career in a Dragon uniform, ranking eighth all-time in program history with 10 career interceptions and recording 220 career tackles.
Moore is tied for fifth on the team with 48 tackles and ranks second with three interceptions. Tiffin has held opponents to under 100 rushing yards in four games this season, as well as seven contests with opponents recording less than 150 yards on the ground. In addition to Cleveland's dominance, fellow end Latrell Robinson has also been a force on the line, recording 53 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and seven tackles for loss on the season. AJ Wright has also recorded 4.5 sacks and five tackles for loss from his defensive tackle position.
Behind Contee and Richardson's standout play, TU is second in the conference and is 21st nationally with 15 interceptions on the year.
Tiffin's Honorable Mention selections were defensive back Jermaine Wimpye, kicker A.J. Nickoli, defensive lineman Marvin Radford, offensive lineman Caleb Pierce, wide receiver Gavin Woods, and tight end Blake Darnell.