CCU

Football's Hoke Named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team

       

Football's Hoke Named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team

Junior placekicker the first CCU football player to earn the national award

CONWAY, S.C. -- Coastal Carolina football's Josh Hoke (Statesville, West Iredell) was named to ESPN The Magazine Football Academic All-American First Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, announced by the organization. Hoke is the first CCU football player to earn the honor and just the 12th in school history.

The junior kicker, who was on the national ballot after being an Academic All-District First Team honoree, was a First Team All-Big South selection for the second consecutive year. He tied for the Conference scoring lead with 80 points, hitting all 38 PAT attempts and going 14-of-22 on field goals. Hoke was named National Weekly Football Gazette National Special Teams Player of the Week twice, had three field goals of 45 yards or more and posted 28 touchbacks on 57 kickoffs in 2005. He was also named to the conference’s All-Academic Team for the second consecutive season, as Hoke has a 4.0 in communications, and was a Division I-AA Athletic Directors All-Academic honoree last year.

Additionally, senior running back Patrick Hall (Richmond, Va./Monacan (Geneva College)) joined Hoke as an Academic All-District First Team selection this season.

Hall, a two-time First Team All-Big South selection and the Big South Offensive Player of the Year in 2004, played in all 11 contests for Coastal this season, starting eight of them. He finished fifth in the league with 603 rushing yards and two touchdowns, saving his best game of the season for the last, going for 127 yards and one touchdown at Charleston Southern. He completed his career as CCU’s all-time rushing leader with 2,144, just the third player in league history to eclipse the 2,000-yard rushing mark in his career. He also owns five of the top eight single-game rushing records at CCU.

Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America; a 2,000-member organization consisted of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.