Conference USA announced its 2017 Players of the Year today, as selected by the league’s 14 head football coaches.  C-USA is completing its 22nd football campaign by sending a record nine teams to bowl games.

2017 Football Players of Year
 
Florida Atlantic sophomore RB Devin “Motor” Singletary is the recipient of the C-USA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the first rusher to be named C-USA MVP since the award was instituted in 2008.  He has put together the most prolific rushing season in FAU history, establishing new school records for rushing attempts (275), rushing yards (1,796), rushing touchdowns (29) and total touchdowns (30).  Singletary ranks fourth in the FBS in rushing yards and leads the nation in rushing and total TDs, tying the C-USA records in the latter two categories originally set by UCF’s Kevin Smith in 2007, now FAU’s running backs coach.  He has posted 11 consecutive games with at least 100 yards rushing and the 11 100+-yard outings is the second-most in a season in league history.  Singletary led the Owls to their first Conference USA Championship and the school’s first bowl appearance since 2008 with a spot in the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl.
 
North Texas sophomore Mason Fine becomes the fourth quarterback to be named Offensive Player of the Year in the last five seasons.  He has completed 294-of-457 passes for 3,749 yards with a league-best 28 touchdown passes (12th among all FBS signal-callers.  Fine has established new single-season passing yardage and touchdown records for the Mean Green.  He threw for more than 300 yards in five games and had six games with three or more touchdown passes, including a pair of four TD outings.  Fine led North Texas to the West Division title and a bid to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, giving the Mean Green back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time since going to four straight bowls from 2001-04.
 
Defensive recognition went to UTSA senior DE Marcus Davenport, the first Roadrunner to win the award and the second straight defensive lineman to earn the honor.  Davenport posted 55 tackles and set school records with 17.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks and eight quarterback hurries this season.  He added four pass breakups, three forced fumbles and had a fumble return for a touchdown.  Davenport finished his UTSA career as the program’s all-time leader in tackles for loss (38.0), sacks (22.0) and QB hurries (21), and he has accepted an invitation to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl on Jan. 27 in Mobile, Ala.
 
The Special Teams Player of the Year award was given to Old Dominion junior KR Isaiah Harper.  He ranks eighth in the FBS in kickoff return average with 29.1 yards per return.  Harper is tied for third with three kickoff return touchdowns, including two at North Texas, and a 100-yard return against North Carolina.  He is just the fifth player in C-USA history to have three or more kickoffs returned for touchdowns in one season.  Harper's 235 kickoff return yards at North Texas was the most by an FBS player in a single-game this season, while his 194 return yards against North Carolina was tied for the seventh-most.  He set the ODU single-season record for kickoff return touchdowns in a season and a career in 2017.
 
Freshman of the Year honors were given to UAB RB Spencer Brown, making him the first Blazer to win that award.  He set the UAB freshman rushing record with 1,292 yards, the second-highest total by a rookie in C-USA history and just 97 yards shy of the record.  Brown is fourth in the league in rushing and fourth in the nation among freshmen rushers.  He also ranks fifth in the conference in rushing touchdowns with 10.  Brown posted six games with 100 or more yards and averages 107.7 yards per outing.
 
Junior WR Teddy Veal of Louisiana Tech and sophomore WR Jalen Guyton of North Texas share the league’s Newcomer of the Year award, the first receivers to earn that honor since 2009. 
 
Veal played every game for the Bulldogs this season and finished as LA Tech’s top receiver in receptions (69), yards (832) and touchdowns (5).  He ranked fourth in C-USA and 30th in the nation with an average of 5.8 receptions per game, while averaging 69.3 receiving yards per game.  Veal posted three 100-yard receiving games for the Bulldogs in his first season in Ruston and his 832 receiving yards ranks fourth in C-USA.  On special teams, he was LA Tech’s lone punt returner in 2017, recording 14 punt returns for 94 yards and a touchdown.
 
Guyton made a big impact in his first season with the Mean Green, posting 48 catches for a team-high 764 yards and nine touchdowns, also a team-high.  His yardage total and his receiving yards per game (63.7) each rank sixth in Conference USA, while his receiving TD total places second.  Guyton topped the 100-yard mark in three games, including a career-high 182 yards with two scores in a win over UTSA in October.
 
The C-USA Superlative Awards are presented by Ready Nutrition.