DALLAS – Conference USA announced its 2018 Players of the Year today, as selected by the league’s 14 head football coaches.  C-USA is completing its 23rd football campaign by sending six teams to bowl games.
 
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Middle Tennessee graduate QB Brent Stockstill is the recipient of the C-USA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the eighth signal-caller to be named C-USA MVP since the award was instituted in 2008.  Stockstill leads C-USA in completions (301) and touchdown passes (28) this season, ranking fourth in the FBS in completion percentage (70.5) and 15^th nationally with 3,214 passing yards.  He has thrown multiple scores in seven straight games and nine total outings on the year, topping the 300-yard mark in passing four times.  Stockstill became just the third player in C-USA history and the 25th in NCAA FBS annals to reach 100 TD passes at Kentucky on Nov. 17 and he enters the bowl game with 105 in his career.  The owner of virtually every passing record in school history, Stockstill ranks in the top 10 of seven individual passing categories in C-USA annals.
 
North Texas junior Mason Fine becomes the fifth player in C-USA history to be named Offensive Player of the Year multiple times, winning the honor for the second straight season.  He ranks eighth in the FBS in passing yards (3,743) and is eighth in the FBS in passing yards per game (311.2) through 12 games.  Fine has completed 295-of-457 passes (64.6%) for 3,743 yards and 27 touchdowns with only five interceptions.  He topped the 300-yard mark five times and the 400-yard mark twice, while throwing for 240 or more in all but one outing.  Fine, who also had a pair of rushing scores, threw multiple touchdowns in 10 games while becoming the all-time leading passer in program history in less than three full seasons (9,358 yards).
 
Defensive recognition went to Louisiana Tech senior DE Jaylon Ferguson, the nation’s sack leader this season.  He leads the FBS with 15.0 sacks in 2018, while ranking third nationally with 23.5 tackles for loss.  With 15.0 sacks in 2018, Ferguson has already broken his own school record for single-season sacks, which he set in 2016 with 14.5.  A four-time all-conference selection, he has recorded 59 total tackles this season, including 33 solo stops, while he has also recorded nine quarterback hurries, three pass breakups and two forced fumbles.  With one game left to play in his decorated career, Ferguson owns both the LA Tech and C-USA records for career sacks (42.5), while he is 1.5 shy of tying the all-time NCAA record for career sacks held by Terrell Suggs of Arizona State (44).
 
The Special Teams Player of the Year award was given to Rice senior P Jack Fox, the first time in C-USA history that a punter has won the honor.  He led C-USA in punting for the second consecutive year, finishing with a career-best 45.5 average.  Fox’s average was second best in the nation among punters with at least 60 punts in the regular season and ranked 8th nationally among all punters.  He topped the FBS with 3,636 punting yards in the regular season, which also set a school record.  Fox had 26 punts of 50 yards or longer and he placed 31 punts inside the 20-yard line, both top figures in the conference.  He had at least one 50+ punt in 12 of 13 games this season and is third in the nation with 13 punts inside the 10-yard line.
 
Florida Atlantic QB Chris Robison and Marshall QB Isaiah Green share the league’s Freshman of the Year award, the third time in league history that multiple players have won the honor, but the first time it will be shared by signal-callers.  Robison played in all 12 games for the Owls, completing 63.2 percent of his passes (192-of-304) for 2,533 yards.  He threw 12 touchdowns and rushed for three scores.  Robison was named C-USA Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 10 after he set a school record with 471 passing yards and tossed three TDs in a win over Air Force.  Green places fourth in C-USA with an average of 248.7 passing yards per game.  He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in all nine games he has played (eight starts), totaling 15.  Green has five games with multiple TD tosses, with a season-high three in a win over Eastern Kentucky.
 
The league’s Newcomer of the Year went to FIU junior QB James Morgan, a graduate transfer that became the fifth passer to win the award in the last six seasons.  Morgan has started every game under center for the Panthers, throwing for a school-record 26 passing touchdowns and 2,764 yards, which ranks second in a single season at FIU.  He leads C-USA in passer efficiency rating (157.6) and passing yards per attempt (8.4), while his 26 TD passes and 27 TDs responsible for are both third in the conference.  Morgan has earned six games with 250 yards passing or more, while earning a season-best 341-yard passing day and school-record four touchdown passes against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in late September.  He was a member of the Manning Stars of the Week and Davey O’Brien Great 8 List after he threw for 311 yards and two touchdowns in the Panthers win over Middle Tennessee.