Southern Miss Receives More All-Conference USA Honors
12/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Links associated with this release:
Collegefootballnews.com's All-Conference USA Awards
Southern Miss Receives More All-Conference USA Honors
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss continued to pile up the Conference USA postseason honors today, as Collegefootballnews.com announced its all-league awards.
The all-conference teams were selected by a panel of Collegefootballnews.com analysts, which provide college football content for Fox Sports.
Southern Miss placed seven players on the all-conference team, as well as taking home two of the three major awards.
Golden Eagle Head Coach Jeff Bower was selected as the site's conference Coach of the Year, while linebacker Michael Boley was honored with the Defensive Player of the Year award.
In his 13th season as head coach at Southern Miss, Bower has led the program to 10 consecutive winning seasons and seven bowl appearances. A part of the USM program for 25 years as a quarterback, assistant coach and head coach, he has produced an overall record of 89-61-1 during his tenure leading the Golden Eagles. Only six coaches in Division I-A have been head coaches at their current program longer than Bower.
While ranking second on the team in tackles, Boley did produce an outstanding season with a team-best 21.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. Those stats also rank him among the league and national leaders in both categories.
The Collegefootballnews.com panel said: "There's no way to go wrong with the choice for Defensive Player of the Year. Southern Miss linebacker Michael Boley had the better season than the more heralded Rod Davis, but that was because Boley got to rush more and make more highlight plays. Davis had a different role than he had last season, but that didn't make him any less valuable."
Along with Boley, six other players were selected to the All-Conference USA team, including five on the nationally-ranked defense. Boley, Rod Davis, Terrell Paul, Greg Brooks and Etric Pruitt all were selected to the defensive team. Jeremy Parquet notched a spot on the offensive team, while Marvin Young made the squad as a punt returner.
Davis currently leads Southern Miss in total tackles with 148 and has a team-best 103 solos. He also is tied with Clump Taylor on the all-time career total tackles list at Southern Miss with 510 career stops. Davis is the all-time leader in Conference USA in two categories, total tackles and tackles for loss.
Paul currently has 50 tackles to his credit and is second with six sacks. He also has eight tackles for loss and 11 quarterback hurries.
Pruitt's 122 total tackles is third for the Golden Eagles this season. He also has four tackles for loss, three interceptions, 10 pass breakups, three fumble recoveries and one forced fumble this season.
Brooks led the team with 12 pass breakups, while also registering 25 tackles, one sack, three interceptions, one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles.
Parquet was one of two returning starters for the Southern Miss offensive line and he helped pave the way for an offensive line that allowed just nine sacks on the year and helped produce 4,011 yards of total offense.
Young led the league in punt return yardage with 430. In his 30 returns, he averaged 14.3 yards per touch and also had a game-sealing 87-yard punt return against Memphis.
Six Southern Miss players were listed in the site's Top 30 players ranking, regardless of position. Boley and Davis were No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, behind only Memphis' DeAngelo Williams, who was the league's Offensive Player of the Year. Additionally, Paul and Brooks were selected 11th and 12th, respectively, while Pruitt was 15th in the group. Parquet was tabbed as the 24th best player in the league.
Seven players also were listed in the top five of their respective position categories. Offensively, quarterback Dustin Almond was rated as the fourth quarterback, while Parquet was third among offensive lineman. Boley and Davis were 1-2 in the linebacker list. Paul was the third defensive lineman. Brooks and Pruitt were selected as the second and third in the defensive back list.
Southern Miss (9-3, 8-0 in Conference USA) has one more game remaining on its schedule, a Dec. 31 meeting with Mountain West Conference Champion Utah in the 2003 AXA Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn.