Trio of Eagles net All-SAC honors
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman football placed three individuals on the South Atlantic Conference’s all-conference teams, the league office announced Thursday morning.
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman football placed three individuals on the South Atlantic Conference's all-conference teams, the league office announced Thursday morning.
DeQuan Dudley (Harvey, Ill.) was lauded with first team honors as a return specialist, while Rondrow Peebles (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Troy Dendy (Laurens, S.C.) garnered second-team honors at linebacker and running back, respectively.
Dudley, the national special teams player of the week for games played on Oct. 9, put himself in the C-N record books by returning two, 100-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns against Catawba. They are the fifth and sixth, 100-yard returns in Carson-Newman history.
Dudley also reset the single-game record for Carson-Newman kickoff return yards with 229. He joins Kendall James as the only Eagles to return multiple kicks for a score in a single game. He is one of 11 in Division II history with multiple kickoff returns for scores in a single game.
He set an NCAA Division II record for yards per kickoff return with 76.3 besting a 39-year-old mark set by Cal Poly's Clarence Martin in 1982 against Cal Poly Pomona.
The 76.3 yards per return are the second most among all NCAA Divisions. Only Division III's Elijah Rehm of Rowan averaged more per return - 84.7 yds per return against Widener to be exact - on Aug. 30, 2018 (three returns for 254 yds).
Against Catawba, Dudley also returned four punts for 62 yards with a long of 27 yards.
Dudley finished the year fourth in the country in yards per kickoff return with 33.5. He was one of six players in the nation to return two kicks for scores on the year.
He finished the year with 641 combined return yardage between kickoffs and punts, a figure that ranks 12th in the country.
Peebles earns All-SAC honors for a second time in his career. He finished second on the team with 78 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.
He had a trio of quarterback hurries and a pass break up as well, to go with a fumble recovery against Limestone. He topped out with double-digit tackles twice – tallying 12 against Wingate on Sept. 18 and 11 against Catawba on Oct. 9. He had a career-high 10 solo stops against the Indians.
Dendy followed up his SAC Freshman of the Year campaign in 2019 by earning All-SAC honors in his sophomore season.
A SAC Player of the Week, Dendy's headline performance came in the home finale against Limestone.
To earn his second weekly honor from the league, Dendy rushed for 262 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries in Carson-Newman's 27-21 win over the Limestone Saints, Saturday.
Dendy tallied the sixth 250-yard rushing performance in school history. It's the fifth highest total in school history and the eighth highest total in NCAA Division II this year. He averaged a whopping 12.5 yards per carry.
Dendy had 10 rushes that traversed at least 10 yards and another four that were 30 yards or longer.
Dendy's day was a part of a banner day on the ground for the Eagles. The 472 yards rushing are a season high, the 25th highest total in school history and the fourth-highest total NCAA Division II this season. Carson-Newman only lost yards on two plays.
Dendy averaged 66.0 yards per game and 5.5 yards per carry en route to leading the team with 660 yards and three touchdowns on the year.
