FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2006
Contact:  Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Associate Commissioner

SCAC announces 2006 All-Conference Football Team

SUWANEE, Ga. - The 2006 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference football season will go down in history as the year that Millsaps College stepped up and ended one the more remarkable streaks in all of Division III.

In a battle of undefeated conference teams, Millsaps defeated Trinity University, 34-12, in the regular season finale for both teams to claim its first outright league title since 1991 and snap the Tigers’ 13-year string of SCAC football championships.

That achievement did not go unrewarded as, in exclusive voting by the head coaches of the SCAC, Juan Joseph of Millsaps was selected the league’s Offensive Player-of-the-Year and his teammate Chris Jackson was named the Special Teams Player-of-the-Year. Millsaps’ head coach Mike DuBose was voted the league’s Coach-of-the-Year.

In the same balloting, Dustin Hertel of DePauw University was voted the Defensive Player-of-the-Year.

Juan Joseph (pictured left), a 6-2, 178-pound sophomore quarterback from Edgard, La., set single-season school records for passing yards (2,265), completions (200), attempts (337) and touchdown passes (21) in his first year as a starter. He led the SCAC in both passing yards (251.7 yards per game) and total offense (256.1 yards per game) and was third in the league in pass efficiency rating (129.84). A three-time SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week selection during the season, Joseph is the first Millsaps player to win the league’s Offensive POTY award since Brad Madden was so honored in 1996.

Chris Jackson (pictured right), a 6-2, 205-pound senior wide receiver and return specialist from Phenix City, Ala., probably locked up the league’s Special Teams Player-of-the-Year award in the SCAC-clinching victory over Trinity. Jackson had two first-half, touchdown punt returns (67 and 51 yards) in the win – becoming just the second player in league history to take two punts to the end zone in a single game. But besides leading the league in kick returns (22.7 yards per return), Jackson also led all SCAC receivers with 59 receptions for 661 yards and nine TDs. He also led the league with 156.4 all-purpose yards per game (22nd in the nation).

In his first season as the head coach at Millsaps, Mike DuBose (pictured left) guided the Majors to a 7-3 overall mark, a perfect 6-0 league mark, and the 2006 SCAC Football title. Since joining the league in 1989, Millsaps had never run the table unscathed in conference play and had won seven or more games just twice. After the Majors’ lost their first three games of the season, a conference championship seemed to be anything but a pipe dream. But Millsaps rebounded behind a defense that, after allowing 42.7 points in the first three games, stiffened to allow just 10.8 points per game while surrendering no more than 18 points in any game over the course of the season-ending 7-0 run. Before this season, DuBose last coached at the collegiate level at his alma mater, the University of Alabama. From 1997-2000, the Crimson Tide posted a 24-23 record, including a berth in the inaugural Music City Bowl in 1998 and an SEC Championship and Orange Bowl berth in 1999.

Dustin Hertel (pictured right), a 6-3, 230-pound senior defensive end from Batesville, Ind., had 85 total tackles for DePauw (46 solo), which included a SCAC single-season record 27.5 tackles for loss. His 16 sacks tie the league’s single-season mark. In addition to leading the league in tackles for loss and sacks, he also led the SCAC in forced fumbles (5) and was third in fumble recoveries (3). In conference-only games, Hertel led the league in tackles, sacks, tackles for loss, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. He finished the regular season ranked third nationally in both tackles for loss and sacks and fourth in forced fumbles. A two-time All-SCAC selection, Hertel was the league’s Defensive Player-of-the-Week three times during the season and earned the honor seven times for his career.