Atlantic Coast Conference Announces Football Players of the Week

Duke leads the way with three selections following win over Georgia Tech

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Duke leads all schools with three student-athletes receiving Atlantic Coast Conference Football Player of the Week honors following Saturday’s 34-20 Coastal Division victory over 20^th ranked Georgia Tech.

The Blue Devils’ Jeremy Cash was recognized as the ACC Defensive Back of the Week, while A.J. Wolf was named the Defensive Lineman of the Week and DeVon Edwards the Specialist of the Week.

Cash was also named the Walter Camp Foundation National Defensive Player of the Week for his play against the Yellow Jackets.

North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky picked up ACC Offensive Back of the Week honors, and his Tar Heel teammate Mack Hollins was selected the Receiver of the Week. NC State’s Joe Thuney was named the ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week, while Boston College’s Connor Strachan was recognized as the ACC Linebacker of the Week and Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson as Freshman of the Week.

ACC Football Players of the Week are selected by a 14-member media panel.

OFFENSIVE BACK – Mitch Trubisky, North Carolina, So., QB, 6-3, 220, Mentor, Ohio

Trubisky completed 17 of 20 passes for 312 yards and four touchdowns and set a single-game North Carolina record for pass efficiency rating at 282.04 in Saturday’s 41-14 win over Delaware.  The previous Tar Heel record was 263.48 by Jason Stanicek vs. Maryland in 1993. Trubisky also ran the ball six times for 39 yards. He set single-game career highs for completions, attempts, passing yards and touchdown passes. Trubisky’s 64-yard touchdown pass to Mack Hollins in the third quarter was the longest completion of his career.

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN – Joe Thuney, NC State, Sr.-r, OT, 6-5, 295, Centerville, Ohio

Thuney helped pave the way for the Wolfpack to gain 586 total yards, including 330 rushing yards, in Saturday night’s 63-13 road win at South Alabama. Thuney earned a team-high grade of 92 percent while participating on 47 offensive snaps and did not miss an assignment or allow a sack.

RECEIVER – Mack Hollins, North Carolina, Jr., WR, 6-4, 210, Rockville, Md.

Hollins caught three passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s 41-14 win over Delaware to earn ACC Receiver of the Week honors for the second time in his career. Hollins now has 10 career touchdown receptions, and Saturday marked his second career two-touchdown game (also 2014 at Virginia). Hollins posted his third career game with 100 or more receiving yards.

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN – A.J. Wolf, Duke, Jr.-r, DT, 6-4, 270, Greenwich, Conn.

Wolf had eight tackles – six of which limited Georgia Tech rushers to two yards or less – in Saturday’s 34-20 win over the 20^th ranked Yellow Jackets. Wolf’s play up front helped limit Georgia Tech to 173 rushing yards – 204 below its season average – and just 2.9 yards per rushing attempt. The Yellow Jackets’ average of 7.3 yards per carry entering the game ranked third nationally. Wolf and the Duke defense also limited Georgia Tech to to a combined 6-of-24 (.250) on third and fourth downs – 5-of-19 on third down and 1-of-5 on fourth down.

​LINEBACKER – Connor Strachan, Boston College, So., LB, 6-2, 230, Wellesley, Mass.

Strachan led the Eagles’ defense in tackles for the third game in 2015 with nine in Saturday’s 17-14 victory over Northern Illinois.  The sophomore tallied a career-high nine tackles, including seven solo stops, and registered additional career highs with one sack for a loss of nine yards and 2.5 tackles for a loss of 11 yards. Strachan helped the BC defense hold the Huskies to just 72 rushing yards and only 153 total yards, The Eagles continue to own the top-ranking defense in the nation and have yet to allow a team over 100 rushing yards this season.

DEFENSIVE BACK – Jeremy Cash, Duke, Sr.-r, S, 6-2, 210, Miami, Fla.

Cash spearheaded Duke’s defensive effort in Saturday’s 34-20 ACC win over 20^th ranked Georgia Tech with 12 tackles, including three tackles for loss and one quarterback sack. Cash forced two fumbles and had four quarterback pressures in earning ACC Defensive Back of the Week honors for the fourth time in his career.  Duke held Georgia Tech to 173 rushing yards – 204 below its season average (377.0), which ranked second nationally entering the week – while snapping the Yellow Jackets’ nation’s-best 17-game streak of consecutive outings with 200-plus rushing yards.

SPECIALIST – DeVon Edwards, Duke, Jr.-r, KR, 5-9, 180, Covington, Ga.

Edwards delivered a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown at a key point in Saturday’s 34-20 win over Georgia Tech en route to earning his second career ACC Specialist of the Week honor and third conference weekly award overall. Edwards’ runback came with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter immediately following a Georgia Tech touchdown that trimmed Duke’s lead to 19-13. It was his second kickoff return for a touchdown this season and the fifth of his career. Edwards also contributed eight tackles on defense.

ROOKIE – Lamar Jackson, Louisville, Fr., QB, 6-3, 196, Boynton Beach, Fla.

Jackson rushed for 184 yards and two scores while throwing for a career-high 212 yards and another touchdown in Saturday’s 45-3 win over Samford. In his second career start, Jackson scored on runs of 13 and 14 yards and tossed a 36-yard TD pass. His 184 yards rushing are the most in a single game by a Louisville quarterback.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – When Atlantic Coast Conference teams kick off their football seasons later this week, additional sets of safety-conscious eyes will watch intently from on high.

As announced by Commissioner John Swofford at the ACC Kickoff on July 20, the 2015 season will include assigned medical observers from each team at every game. Each observer will occupy a specified location in the press box to monitor any visual indicators of potential injury to a student-athlete from his or her team.

Medical observers will have communication access to their teams’ medical staffs on the sidelines. Upon a medical observer’s notification of a visual indicator of an injury, that sideline personnel shall act upon that information in accordance with their institution’s athletics medical plan.

“The team-specific medical observer will have the benefit of knowing the medical history of the players,” Swofford noted. “Each game that we play, there will be two people in the booth – one from each school – that will have the sole purpose of observing what’s taking place on the field that somebody on the sidelines might not be able to see.”

The ACC initiative was unanimously approved by the conference’s athletic directors.  In recent years, ACC member schools have taken the lead in concussion research and other player safety points of concern.

“In the areas of health and safety, I can’t say enough about our institutions,” Swofford said. “As a league, and personally as a former player, we are supportive and an advocate for making the game of football as safe as it can possibly be.”

Jeffrey Allen has been named the director of student activities and athletics at Vance-Granville Community College.

Allen will oversee clubs, organizations and extracurricular activities that engage students on campus, as well as the college’s intercollegiate athletics program, which includes men’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams. He will also serve as the advisor for the VGCC Student Government Association (SGA). Allen was active in student government when he was an undergraduate, and feels passionately about involving VGCC students in such opportunities.

A resident of southern Granville County, Allen has been a member of the VGCC staff since May 2012, when he became coordinator of Basic Skills at the college’s Franklin County Campus. In January 2014, he was named VGCC’s Director of Leadership and Professional Development.

Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at North Carolina Central University and a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Western Governors University. He had a 14-year career in education at the K-12 level prior to joining VGCC. Allen has served as a math teacher for Vance County Schools, a math teacher and dean of students at New Century Charter High School in Chapel Hill, and a math teacher and assistant principal at Christian Faith Center Academy in Creedmoor. During his last three years at Christian Faith Center, Allen also served as the school’s athletic director.

“In all of his roles at VGCC, Jeffrey has shown his commitment to the mission, vision and values of our college, as well as a passion for student learning, engagement and success. Now, we look forward to his leadership in providing exciting opportunities and experiences outside the classroom for all of our Vanguards,” VGCC Vice President of Employee and Public Relations Stacey Carter-Coley said. “Under his direction, we will also continue to develop our athletic program, which not only offers excellent opportunities for our student-athletes, but also serves and enriches our whole community of fans and supporters.”

Rougemont, NC

There was a time when stock car auto racing was so popular that a touring division known as the Hooters Pro Cup Series thrived at local short tracks across the east coast. However, in recent years, NASCAR and all of racing has taken a hit.

The CARS Tour that invaded Orange County Speedway on August 1^st is a little different. The CARS Tour was born from the remains of the now defunct USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, but they now use super late models, and late model stock cars like you would see at a short track on the tour. This allows the drivers more flexibility as to where they can run their racecar on a weekly basis.

Brandon Setzer, son of longtime NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Dennis Setzer, won the super late model race at Orange County Speedway on August 1^st. The CARS Tour super late models allow young drivers like Brandon Setzer to drive high horsepower racecars in preparation for future days in NASCAR.

Josh Berry, driver of the SPEEDCO Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, raced at Orange County Speedway the week before the CARS Tour came to town to dial in his machine. He won the late model stock portion of the CARS Tour Race at Orange County.

From JoshBerry.net, “I’m really proud of all our guys for working so hard this weekend. This series is really competitive, so to be able to get two wins in our first two starts is impressive. It really turned into a long race with a lot of cautions, so I just had to keep focus and get good restarts to keep the lead. The outside groove seemed to really work for us, so it was real important to stay out front to have lane control for the restarts. I feel like racing at OCS last weekend really helped me learn the track, and I was able to use it to my advantage in the CARS race.”

In the NASCAR racing we see on TV, those drivers do not get a chance to practice at the track that they’re racing at next week, and that is what makes the CARS Tour different and exciting to fans and competitors.