RSSBot
News Junkie
By Stuart
–
[h=3]Colorado Daily[/h] –
November 30th
Post-season Football Award winners named
From cubuffs.com … *Junior wide receiver Nelson Spruce was named the University of Colorado’s 2014 Most Valuable Player, highlighting the team’s annual senior banquet Sunday morning at Folsom Field’s Byron White Club room in the east stadium.
Spruce essentially replaced Paul Richardson, who declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season; Richardson had wiped several of CU’s longstanding receiving records from the books in 2013, and Spruce came along and one-upped him in taking over most of those marks.* Spruce becomes one of only a handful of non-seniors to earn the team’s MVP honor, named the Zack Jordan Award, as prior to last year, no junior had won it since 2002.* Spruce is just the seventh wide receiver to be Colorado’s MVP since the award was created in 1959.
Spruce set or tied 20 school game, season or career receiving records, including single-season receptions (106) and receiving touchdowns (12), and consecutive games catching a touchdown pass (seven); his 19 receptions at California were six more than ever recorded before in a CU game and also tied the Pac-1 Conference record.* The 106 catches overall enabled him to become just the seventh player in conference history with 100 or more, and finished as the fourth-most ever in a season.* The 1,198 receiving yards were the second most in a season at Colorado, where he will enter his senior year in 2015 second in all-time receptions (205), sixth in yards (2,294) and fifth in touchdowns (19).
One of 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award (presented to the nation’s top receiver), he earned 57 first downs, 56 by receiving, which was also a team record, and his 12 touchdowns covered 370 yards, or just under 31 yards per; four of those covered 71, 70, 66 and 54 yards.
With Spruce claiming the MVP honor, the coaches gave the nod for the John Mack Award for the most outstanding player on offense to sophomore quarterback Sefo Liufau.* He set or tied 39 single game, season or career records, as he finished his sophomore season with 325 completions in 498 attempts for 3,200 yards, 28 touchdowns and a 65.3 completion percentage, all CU single-season records (the latter for 200 or more attempts).* He also set the season mark for total offense (3,336), as well as the most 300-yard passing and 300-yard total offense games in a season (5 of each).* He has at least one TD pass in 20 straight games (each one of his career), which is the fourth longest current streak in the NCAA.* Career-wise, he will enter his junior year sixth in passing yards (4,979), seventh in total offense (5,148) and tied for fourth in TD passes (40).
The team’s Dave Jones Award for the outstanding defensive player also went to a sophomore, which has happened numerous times, as inside linebacker Kenneth Olugbode was afforded the honor.
Olugbode completed a fine sophomore season with 13 tackles (11 solo) in CU’s 38-34 loss to Utah; that enabled him to become just the seventh underclassman to ever lead CU in tackles for the season.* He finished the year with 84, which included 58 solo stops; he also had eight tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage, with a team-best seven tackles for zero,* seven third down stops, three passes broken up and two fumble recoveries.
Senior punter Darragh O’Neill claimed the Bill McCartney Award for special teams achievement, as he enjoyed his finest season in becoming just the third player in school history to lead the team in punting for four seasons.* He averaged a career-best 44.1 yards per punt, third in the Pac-12 Conference, with a healthy net of 39.5 yards, a top 20 figure nationally.* A specialist at pinning opponents inside-the-20, he had 27 this season, second in the league and his percentage of kicks doing so, 42 percent, currently 11th in the nation.** He finished his career with CU records for punts (281), yards (12,001), inside-the-20 kicks (95) and those that also were inside-the-10 (34), with his average of 42.71 the ninth-best.
Sophomore linebacker Ryan Severson was the recipient of the inaugural Special Teams Belt Award, presented to a player who graded out the best in the coverage portion of the game.** He finished second in CU’s special teams points standings with 25, with 16 of those earned from coverage duties, including eight tackles, three inside-the-20, two first downfield credits that altered returns, a forced fair catch, a downed punt and a caused penalty.
The Scout Team Awards were presented to a pair of hard-working walk-on performers, wide receiver Joseph Hall (offense) and defensive end Aaron Howard (defense).* The coaches selected the players who contributed the most to the weekly preparation on their respective scout teams over the course of the entire season.
The Lee Willard Award for the most outstanding freshman was shared for the first time since 1998, as wide receiver Shay Fields, a true freshman, and defensive end Derek McCartney, a redshirt frosh, were honored.
Fields set a CU freshman record with 50 receptions, zooming past the old mark of 39 that had stood since 1982.* He tied the mark for the most catches in a first game of a CU career (eight), and set the records for the most in the first two (14) and three games (21).* He was second on the team in receptions, yards (486) and touchdowns, both overall (5) and via receiving (4). His yardage total was the second-most ever by a Buff rookie, and a 75-yard touchdown he scored at Arizona was the quickest score in a game in CU history (12 seconds in) and the second longest reception by a freshman.
McCartney was in on 32 tackles this season, 21 of the solo variety, which included four-and-a-half quarterback sacks, tied for the second-most by a freshman in school history.* He also had four tackles for zero and another for a loss, giving him 10 total at or behind the line of scrimmage, and added two forced fumbles, a recovery, two passes broken up, five pressures and for third down stops in starting all 12 games.* After this semester, he will have passed an incredible 88 hours toward his degree in Integrative Physiology.
Placekicker Will Oliver was honored with the Dean Jacob Van Ek Award for academic achievement.* A three-time Pac-12 All-Academic team member and CU’s nominee for the prestigious National Football Foundation’s William Campbell Award, he owns a 3.76 grade point average in Business (Finance sequence).* He is also working toward his Master’s in Accounting on a concurrent basis.* Oliver finished his career with 279 points, second all-time at Colorado, and was second in field goals made (50) and attempts (69), first in both extra points made (129) and attempted (131), second in PAT percentage (.985) and third in field goal percentage (72.57); he set the school record with 102 consecutive PAT kicks made.
In all, 68 players earned letters this season, including 21 seniors and 26 cited as first-year lettermen with 15 of those players freshmen (five true).* The lettermen broke down into 29 offensive and 33 defensive players, five specialists and one two-way performer (redshirt frosh George Frazier, who played over 100 snaps at fullback and tight end, and nearly 200 at defensive end).
The complete list of CU award winners announced Sunday; all awards were selected by the coaching staff unless otherwise noted:
Zack Jordan Award (most valuable player): WR Nelson Spruce
John Mack Award (outstanding offensive players): QB Sefo Liufau
Dave Jones Award (outstanding defensive players): ILB Kenneth Olugbode
Bill McCartney Award (special teams achievement): P Darragh O’Neill
Special Teams Belt Award (coverage unit achievement): ILB Ryan Severson
Lee Willard Award (outstanding freshmen): WR Shay Fields, DE Derek McCartney
Dean Jacob Van Ek Award (academic excellence): PK Will Oliver
Offensive Scout Player of the Year: WR Joseph Hall
Defensive Scout Player of the Year: DE Aaron Howard
Derek Singleton Award (spirit, dedication and enthusiasm): WR Wesley Christensen
Tyronee “Tiger” Bussey Award (inspiration in the face of physical adversity): OT Jeromy Irwin
Tom McMahon Award (great dedication and work ethic): TE Kyle Slavin, DB Richard Yates
Eddie Crowder Award (outstanding leadership): OG Daniel Munyer
Offensive Trench Award: OG Kaiwi Crabb, OT Stephone Nembot
Defensive Trench Award: DT Josh Tupou
Hammer Award (hardest legal hit of the year): TE Sean Irwin
Best Interview (selected by team beat media): WR Nelson Spruce
—–
Originally posted by CU At the Game
Click here to vie
–
[h=3]Colorado Daily[/h] –
November 30th
Post-season Football Award winners named
From cubuffs.com … *Junior wide receiver Nelson Spruce was named the University of Colorado’s 2014 Most Valuable Player, highlighting the team’s annual senior banquet Sunday morning at Folsom Field’s Byron White Club room in the east stadium.
Spruce essentially replaced Paul Richardson, who declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season; Richardson had wiped several of CU’s longstanding receiving records from the books in 2013, and Spruce came along and one-upped him in taking over most of those marks.* Spruce becomes one of only a handful of non-seniors to earn the team’s MVP honor, named the Zack Jordan Award, as prior to last year, no junior had won it since 2002.* Spruce is just the seventh wide receiver to be Colorado’s MVP since the award was created in 1959.
Spruce set or tied 20 school game, season or career receiving records, including single-season receptions (106) and receiving touchdowns (12), and consecutive games catching a touchdown pass (seven); his 19 receptions at California were six more than ever recorded before in a CU game and also tied the Pac-1 Conference record.* The 106 catches overall enabled him to become just the seventh player in conference history with 100 or more, and finished as the fourth-most ever in a season.* The 1,198 receiving yards were the second most in a season at Colorado, where he will enter his senior year in 2015 second in all-time receptions (205), sixth in yards (2,294) and fifth in touchdowns (19).
One of 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award (presented to the nation’s top receiver), he earned 57 first downs, 56 by receiving, which was also a team record, and his 12 touchdowns covered 370 yards, or just under 31 yards per; four of those covered 71, 70, 66 and 54 yards.
With Spruce claiming the MVP honor, the coaches gave the nod for the John Mack Award for the most outstanding player on offense to sophomore quarterback Sefo Liufau.* He set or tied 39 single game, season or career records, as he finished his sophomore season with 325 completions in 498 attempts for 3,200 yards, 28 touchdowns and a 65.3 completion percentage, all CU single-season records (the latter for 200 or more attempts).* He also set the season mark for total offense (3,336), as well as the most 300-yard passing and 300-yard total offense games in a season (5 of each).* He has at least one TD pass in 20 straight games (each one of his career), which is the fourth longest current streak in the NCAA.* Career-wise, he will enter his junior year sixth in passing yards (4,979), seventh in total offense (5,148) and tied for fourth in TD passes (40).
The team’s Dave Jones Award for the outstanding defensive player also went to a sophomore, which has happened numerous times, as inside linebacker Kenneth Olugbode was afforded the honor.
Olugbode completed a fine sophomore season with 13 tackles (11 solo) in CU’s 38-34 loss to Utah; that enabled him to become just the seventh underclassman to ever lead CU in tackles for the season.* He finished the year with 84, which included 58 solo stops; he also had eight tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage, with a team-best seven tackles for zero,* seven third down stops, three passes broken up and two fumble recoveries.
Senior punter Darragh O’Neill claimed the Bill McCartney Award for special teams achievement, as he enjoyed his finest season in becoming just the third player in school history to lead the team in punting for four seasons.* He averaged a career-best 44.1 yards per punt, third in the Pac-12 Conference, with a healthy net of 39.5 yards, a top 20 figure nationally.* A specialist at pinning opponents inside-the-20, he had 27 this season, second in the league and his percentage of kicks doing so, 42 percent, currently 11th in the nation.** He finished his career with CU records for punts (281), yards (12,001), inside-the-20 kicks (95) and those that also were inside-the-10 (34), with his average of 42.71 the ninth-best.
Sophomore linebacker Ryan Severson was the recipient of the inaugural Special Teams Belt Award, presented to a player who graded out the best in the coverage portion of the game.** He finished second in CU’s special teams points standings with 25, with 16 of those earned from coverage duties, including eight tackles, three inside-the-20, two first downfield credits that altered returns, a forced fair catch, a downed punt and a caused penalty.
The Scout Team Awards were presented to a pair of hard-working walk-on performers, wide receiver Joseph Hall (offense) and defensive end Aaron Howard (defense).* The coaches selected the players who contributed the most to the weekly preparation on their respective scout teams over the course of the entire season.
The Lee Willard Award for the most outstanding freshman was shared for the first time since 1998, as wide receiver Shay Fields, a true freshman, and defensive end Derek McCartney, a redshirt frosh, were honored.
Fields set a CU freshman record with 50 receptions, zooming past the old mark of 39 that had stood since 1982.* He tied the mark for the most catches in a first game of a CU career (eight), and set the records for the most in the first two (14) and three games (21).* He was second on the team in receptions, yards (486) and touchdowns, both overall (5) and via receiving (4). His yardage total was the second-most ever by a Buff rookie, and a 75-yard touchdown he scored at Arizona was the quickest score in a game in CU history (12 seconds in) and the second longest reception by a freshman.
McCartney was in on 32 tackles this season, 21 of the solo variety, which included four-and-a-half quarterback sacks, tied for the second-most by a freshman in school history.* He also had four tackles for zero and another for a loss, giving him 10 total at or behind the line of scrimmage, and added two forced fumbles, a recovery, two passes broken up, five pressures and for third down stops in starting all 12 games.* After this semester, he will have passed an incredible 88 hours toward his degree in Integrative Physiology.
Placekicker Will Oliver was honored with the Dean Jacob Van Ek Award for academic achievement.* A three-time Pac-12 All-Academic team member and CU’s nominee for the prestigious National Football Foundation’s William Campbell Award, he owns a 3.76 grade point average in Business (Finance sequence).* He is also working toward his Master’s in Accounting on a concurrent basis.* Oliver finished his career with 279 points, second all-time at Colorado, and was second in field goals made (50) and attempts (69), first in both extra points made (129) and attempted (131), second in PAT percentage (.985) and third in field goal percentage (72.57); he set the school record with 102 consecutive PAT kicks made.
In all, 68 players earned letters this season, including 21 seniors and 26 cited as first-year lettermen with 15 of those players freshmen (five true).* The lettermen broke down into 29 offensive and 33 defensive players, five specialists and one two-way performer (redshirt frosh George Frazier, who played over 100 snaps at fullback and tight end, and nearly 200 at defensive end).
The complete list of CU award winners announced Sunday; all awards were selected by the coaching staff unless otherwise noted:
Zack Jordan Award (most valuable player): WR Nelson Spruce
John Mack Award (outstanding offensive players): QB Sefo Liufau
Dave Jones Award (outstanding defensive players): ILB Kenneth Olugbode
Bill McCartney Award (special teams achievement): P Darragh O’Neill
Special Teams Belt Award (coverage unit achievement): ILB Ryan Severson
Lee Willard Award (outstanding freshmen): WR Shay Fields, DE Derek McCartney
Dean Jacob Van Ek Award (academic excellence): PK Will Oliver
Offensive Scout Player of the Year: WR Joseph Hall
Defensive Scout Player of the Year: DE Aaron Howard
Derek Singleton Award (spirit, dedication and enthusiasm): WR Wesley Christensen
Tyronee “Tiger” Bussey Award (inspiration in the face of physical adversity): OT Jeromy Irwin
Tom McMahon Award (great dedication and work ethic): TE Kyle Slavin, DB Richard Yates
Eddie Crowder Award (outstanding leadership): OG Daniel Munyer
Offensive Trench Award: OG Kaiwi Crabb, OT Stephone Nembot
Defensive Trench Award: DT Josh Tupou
Hammer Award (hardest legal hit of the year): TE Sean Irwin
Best Interview (selected by team beat media): WR Nelson Spruce
—–
Originally posted by CU At the Game
Click here to vie