Tulane Football Has Seven Named to PFSN American All-Conference Team
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Tulane had seven player named to Pro Football & Sports Network’s American All-Conference Team, the organization announced on Thursday.
Santana Hopper and Jahiem Johnson were selected for the First Team. Omari Hayes and Shadre Hurst were chosen for the Second Team with Kameron Hamilton, Javion White, and Patrick Durkin earning Third Team distinction.
Hopper, in his first year at Tulane, has played in all 13 games with 12 starts on the defensive line. On the season he has 30 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and a fumble recovery. His tackles for loss rank second on the team. He was previously named the American Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 29, was a First Team American All-Conference selection, and a PFSN Third Team All-American.
Johnson, in his second year at Tulane, has started all 13 games at cornerback. He has 38 tackles, a stop for loss, four interceptions, a team-high eight pass breakups, and a forced fumble. His four interceptions lead the team and are second in the conference. He was previously an Honorable Mention All-Conference selection by the American Conference.
Hayes, in his first year at Tulane, played in all 13 games with four starts at wide receiver. He has 35 catches for 463 yards and a touchdown with a long of 42 yards. He also has worked as the team’s primary punt returner and has 12 returns for 58 yards.
Hurst, in his third year at the school, has started all 13 games for Tulane this season with 12 at left guard and one at left tackle. He has helped the offense rank in the top 10 nationally in sack allowed per game (6th - 0.77) and tackles for loss allowed per game (7th - 3.69). The Green Wave offense is averaging 4.6 yards per carry on the ground with 2213 rushing yards. The passing game sports an average of 240.5 yards a contest with an impressive 12.92 yards per completion. The offense has scored 20+ points in 12 games including seven contests with 30+. He was previously a First Team American All-Conference selection.
Hamilton, in his fourth year at Tulane, played in all 13 games with 12 starts on the defensive line. He has 29 tackles, four tackles for loss, three sacks and two pass breakups.
White, in his second year at Tulane, has played and started all 13 games at cornerback. He has totaled 46 tackles, 3.5 stops for loss, six pass breakups, a fumble recovery, and three interceptions. His three interceptions are second on the team and sixth in the conference.
Durkin, in his second year at Tulane, was the team’s primary kicker in all 13 games. On the season he is 24-for-27 on field goals and 40-for-41 on extra points. He is 7-for-9 from 40+ including four made kicks of 50+ with a long of 52. The 24 made field goals from Durkin this year are the most in school history for a single season and rank him sixth nationally. His 112 points leads the conference, is the most-ever for a kicker in school history and tied for the fifth-most for any player overall in the school record book. He also had 66 touchbacks on 77 kickoffs this season (85.7 percent). He was previously a First Team All-Conference selection for the first time in his career as well as being named the conference’s Special Teams Player of the Year. Durkin also was named the league’s Special Teams Player of the Week three times throughout the campaign (Sept. 1, Oct. 13 and Nov. 24).
After winning the American Conference Championship on Friday night, Dec. 5, for the second time in four seasons, the No. 11 seeded Tulane football team (11-2) is playoff bound for the first time in school history as the program and will faceoff with No. 6 seed Ole Miss (11-1) in Oxford, Miss at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 20, at 2:30 p.m. in a game that will be shown on TNT, the College Football Playoff Committee announced on Sunday morning.
Besides being the first-ever playoff appearance, the Green Wave are also the first team to ever make the playoffs from the state of Louisiana in the 12-team format.
Courtesy Tulane Athletics
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.