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Offensive Player of the Year
Indiana State RB Shakir Bell, a Walter Payton Award finalist and the nation's leading rusher, has been named the Missouri Valley Football Offensive Player of the Year in a vote of league coaches, media and sports information directors. Bell is the first Sycamore to win the top offensive honor since 1991 (Derrick Franklin) and the first-ever sophomore to win the award in league history.

Player School Points
Shakir Bell Indiana State 67
Tirrell Rennie Northern Iowa 30
Kurt Hess Youngstown State 28
Jermaine Saffold Missouri State 5
Ashton Leggett Illinois State 5

Defensive Player of the Year
L.J. Fort of UNI has earned the league's defensive Player of the Year honor. He's the fourth Panther in five seasons to win the league's top individual award on defense. He ranks second in the nation in tackles and forced fumbles.

Name School Total Points
L.J. Fort Northern Iowa 57
Marcus Williams North Dakota State 41
Ben Obaseki Indiana State 23
Eric Brunner Illinois State 10
Andrew Johnson Youngstown State 4

Newcomer of the Year
The league's Newcomer of the Year is Jewel Hampton of Southern Illinois. Frequently compared to former Saluki RB Brandon Jacobs, he's the first SIU player to earn newcomer of the year honor since Jacobs (2004). Hampton led the league in rushing TDs.

Name School Total Points
Jewel Hampton Southern Illinois 46
Austin Sumner South Dakota State 44
Evan Frierson Illinois State 23
David Johnson Northern Iowa 11
Kenneth Boatright Southern Illinois 6
Mike Crutcher Missouri State 5

Freshman of the Year
The MVFC's top freshman is QB Austin Sumner of South Dakota State. The rookie signal-caller took over in SDSU's third game and went on to establish an MVFC single-season freshman record for passing yards.

Name School Total Points
Austin Sumner South Dakota State 71
David Johnson Northern Iowa 26
Christian Bryan Youngstown State 14
MyCole Pruitt Southern Illinois 12
Mike Banks Illinois State 6
Mike Crutcher Missouri State 6

Coach of the Year
North Dakota State head coach Craig Bohl is the league's Bruce Craddock Coach of the Year. A finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, he led the Bison to a conference co-championship, 10-1 overall record, and a No. 2 overall seed in this year's NCAA Division I Football Championship. NDSU spent all 12 weeks ranked in the Top 8 nationally, and achieved a No. 1 ranking for two weeks.

Name School Total Points
Craig Bohl North Dakota State 69
Trent Miles Indiana State 22
Brock Spack Illinois State 20
Eric Wolford Youngstown State 16
Mark Farley Northern Iowa 8


Winner Bios
RB Shakir Bell, Indiana State
5-8, 185, So., Indianapolis, Ind., Warren Central High School
National leader in rushing yards (1,670) and rushing yards per game (151.82) … broke the ISU single-season rushing record … eighth highest single-season total in MVFC history … four games over 200 yards rushing, including at school record of 256 against Youngstown State … his 256 yards against YSU tied for the 12th best in MVFC history … 14 rushing touchdowns this season, with five multi-touchdown games … MVFC leader in all-purpose yards (1,822) … fourth on the team with 13 receptions, picking up 110 yards.

LB L.J. Fort, UNI
6-1, 232, Sr., Waynesville, Mo., Waynesville High
Tied for No. 2 in the nation in total tackles and tackles per game with 151 stops in 11 games … MVFC leader in tackles … posted at least 10 tackles in every game … tied for No. 2 in the nation with six forced fumbles … one fumble recovery … 7.5 TFL … 22 stops at No. 14 Illinois State (11/19) … 17 tackles at SDSU (10/15) and 15 tackles at NDSU (10/29) … second team All-MVFC pick in 2010.

RB Jewel Hampton, Southern Illinois
5-9, 210, Jr., Indianapolis, Ind., University of Iowa
Led the Missouri Valley Football Conference with 17 rushing touchdowns…Fifth in the nation in scoring…1,121 yards on 230 carries…Transferred from Iowa before the year…Added 163 yards receiving…Six 100-yard games…MVFC Newcomer of the Week on Nov. 13…Seven multiple-TD games…Third in the conference in rushing…Fourth the conference in all-purpose yards.

QB Austin Sumner, South Dakota State
6-5, 230, Fr., Brandon, S.D., Brandon Valley High
Played in 10 games, starting all eight league contests … set MVFC freshman record with 2,382 passing yards, leading the league with an average of 238.2 yards per game … tallied 300-plus yards in five games … earned MVFC Newcomer of the Week honors twice (at Youngstown State, at Missouri State) and MVFC Offensive Player of the Week once (vs. Southern Illinois) after throwing for four touchdowns in each game … for the season, threw 16 touchdown passes and nine interceptions, while completing 59.7 percent (182-of-305) of his passes ... candidate for the Jerry Rice Award as top freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision … 136.68 pass efficiency rating

MWILL robbed, he single handely won at least 4-5 games for NDSU, how many did LJ fort win for uni?

lakesbison wrote:MWILL robbed, he single handely won at least 4-5 games for NDSU, how many did LJ fort win for uni?

Averaging 13.7 tackles per game and being the leader of the defense....quite a few.

He plays LB...the only numbers Williams has over Fort is INT's which he should because he plays DB

13 tackles cuz your dline is a wet noodle.


MWILL had game changing plays that influenced WINS from a defensive player. cmon man, how can you argue

Shocking.

lakesbison wrote:13 tackles cuz your dline is a wet noodle.


MWILL had game changing plays that influenced WINS from a defensive player. cmon man, how can you argue

Your theory sucks.

If the DL sucks, that means they don't eat up blocks and the OL gets to LJ to block him....

So really, he deserves it even more if he is fighting that many OL off.

I don't have a problem with Fort winning it, but I do have a problem with the Buchanon Award not even mentioning MWILL I don't think he should win it yet, but there's no way he should not be nominated. He's our best defender on the #2 defense in the country. I don't understand that at all.

The rest of the MVFC awards look good, carry on.

Marcus Williams should have won Defense MVP. He is arguably the most valuable player for the BISON this year who won a conference championship and have a #2 seed in the playoffs. MWill is much more valuable to the BISON and a bigger play maker plain and simple. Unreal.

NDSUFREAK wrote:Marcus Williams should have won Defense MVP. He is arguably the most valuable player for the BISON this year who won a conference championship and have a #2 seed in the playoffs. MWill is much more valuable to the BISON and a bigger play maker plain and simple. Unreal.

So? Plug LJ Fort's name into your post, and it reads just the same. And he plays at a much more important/noticeable position on defense at MLB.

I thought Fort was a solid selection, Williams was deserving as well but it is hard for a corner to win these awards.

co-champs, co-DPoYs.

I woulda been alright with that. But, LJ was more popular with the voters.

look at the voting - very close between Williams and Fort - honestly - I think you could have gone either way and been fine...

Fort was huge for UNI - even in their loss to the Bison. I didn't see enough of UNI on a game by game basis - but, much like teams stopped throwing at Williams - my guess is that teams ran at Fort a lot less - I know NDSU ran off the right more than the left in their matchup.

As it is - I like that they rewarded Bohl - and I think the rest of the awards are EXACTLY who I would have picked.

There is an easy solution to this fella's. Let's take a look at rushing TD's between the two and whoever has more is the winner

I also find it amusing that the coach of the conference (Co-)Champion gets 5th place in CoY. Of course I understand it since Bohl certainly deserved the award and Wolford did a great job with a young YSU team. Spock was also pretty good and Miles has done a great job with InSt....but I'm not sure if the Miles was that much better than Farley when they missed out on the playoffs with some really lackluster play in the 2nd half of the season. But 4th...5th...does it reeeeaaaally matter? I guess Farley just got punished for TYING with those darned Bizon. Like I said, I understand it but it's just amusing

panther-state wrote:There is an easy solution to this fella's. Let's take a look at rushing TD's between the two and whoever has more is the winner

I also find it amusing that the coach of the conference (Co-)Champion gets 5th place in CoY. Of course I understand it since Bohl certainly deserved the award and Wolford did a great job with a young YSU team. Spock was also pretty good and Miles has done a great job with InSt....but I'm not sure if the Miles was that much better than Farley when they missed out on the playoffs with some really lackluster play in the 2nd half of the season. But 4th...5th...does it reeeeaaaally matter? I guess Farley just got punished for TYING with those darned Bizon. Like I said, I understand it but it's just amusing

I'm alright with Miles getting more votes than Farley this year.
UNI not getting the outright conference championship = underachieving
Indiana State being in the playoff discussion going into the final week = major overachieving (even with the choke)

I imagine either player would take a National Championship over any individual award.