June 6, 2018

Williams, McDowell grab preseason All-America honors from Lindy's Sports

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A pair of Carson-Newman football players have garnered preseason All-America honors from Lindy's Sports in the publication's annual preseason football preview.

Junior safety Darius Williams (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and junior offensive lineman Phillip McDowell (Boiling Springs, S.C.) both earned a spot on the Linday's Sports All-America second team.

Carson-Newman, West Florida and West Alabama are the only program's from Super Region II with multiple athletes selected to the preseason All-America teams. The pair equates to the only players selected to Lindy's preseason All-America teams from the South Atlantic Conference.

Williams became Carson-Newman's 122nd All-American, earning a spot on the Don Hansen Football Gazette listings at the end of his sophomore season.

Darius Williams led the South Atlantic Conference in interceptions with five in his sophomore season and helped Carson-Newman finish the year with the most picks in the South Atlantic Conference with 14. Williams tallied a pick in three straight games from Sept. 23 against Newberry to Oct. 7 against Limestone.

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Lookie here, @cnfootball's @Darius7Williams and @bigphill94 have earned preseason All-America honors from @Lindyssportsmag pic.twitter.com/zsJylOSAQX
— C-N Athletics (@CNathletics) June 6, 2018

His top effort though came against Tusculum when he snared an INT and returned it 58 yards to the house for the Eagles' lone defensive touchdown of the season. Williams five interceptions are the most for Carson-Newman since All-American Eien Jacob snared that many in 2013. He was 19th nationally in interceptions.

Williams also finished the year with 48 tackles, the fourth most on Carson-Newman's team. He and the rest of the Eagles' secondary limited every receiver they faced under their season averages, with the exception of Mars Hill's Keshaun Taylor and Craig Rucker. He started all 11 games for the Eagles and made a career-high seven tackles against Newberry.

An 11-game starter for the Eagles on the offensive line, McDowell helped pave the way for Carson-Newman's offense to rank second in the league with 409 yards per game gained, including a league-best 275 yards on the ground.

The Eagles ranked in the top 10 nationally in yards rushing. McDowell led Carson-Newman in knockdowns and overall grade in his sophomore season. McDowell produced a whopping 33 knockdowns on the year, good for the single-season C-N record, including the two highest single-game knockdown marks. McDowell had seven knockdowns in the Eagles' win against Limestone and six against Mars Hill in another C-N victory. He had at least one knockdown in every game for the Eagles.

First Team Offense

QB - Amir Hall, Bowie State

RB - Marc Jones, Gannon

RB - Cameron Mayberry, Colorado Mines

WR - Weston Carr, Azusa Pacific

WR - Austin Ryan, Bentley

TE - Vincent Hobbs, Texas A&M-Commerce

OL - Frank Ball, Virginia State

OL - Devon Johnson, Ferris State

OL - Nic Sawyer, Ferris State

OL - Collin McAllister, IUP

OL - AJ Roland, Midwestern State