The verdict is in and punter Andrew Stokes was one of five USF Bulls receiving all-American Athletic Conference honors. Stokes, a veritable college football senior citizen at age 30, was the lone Bull named to the first team.
Senior defensive tackle Decarius Hawthorne earned second-team recognition while graduate wide receiver Sean Atkins was named to the third team.
Graduate running back Kelley Joiner Jr. and senior defensive tackle Bernard Gooden were named honorable mention.
Stokes had a sensational year, finishing ranked 15th nationally and second in the conference with a 44.8 punting average. That is the second-best season average in USF program history.
His accuracy was outstanding, with 24 punts landing inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. That was tops in the conference. Opponents returned only 12 punts for 60 total yards. Strokes also set school records for punts inside the 20 (70) and consecutive punts without a block (190).
Hawthorne, in his first year with USF after transferring from Florida Atlantic, led Bulls’ linemen with 38 tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss. He also had 2.5 sacks, two pass breakups, a recovered fumble, a forced fumble, and two quarterback hurries.
Atkins, a former walk-on, cemented his place in USF lore by leading the Bulls in receiving for the second-straight year. Atkins owns the career receptions record for the Bulls with 189 and moved into second all-time in career receiving yards with 2,063, just 73 shy of Andre Davis’s program record of 2,136.
Atkins still has a shot at the record in USF’s upcoming bowl game.
Joiner Jr. became an explosive force in the USF running game, topping 100 yards three times en route to 766 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also a led the Bulls with 947 all-purpose yards. His career rushing total of 2,178 yards is sixth all-time for USF.
In his first season with USF after transferring from Wake Forest, Gooden posted 31 tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries, two pass breakups, and four quarterback hurries in his first season on the field for the Bulls.