Football: All-Louisiana named – Moten, Onyenekwu, Huval selected to 1st team, Broadway top newcomer

Kent Lowe, Special to the Advertiser, December 26, 2012

BATON ROUGE — In a season when Louisiana college football had lots of strong highlight moments, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association members had little trouble picking their top honorees on the 2012 All-Louisiana College Football Team announced late Monday.

Louisiana Tech quarterback Colby Cameron, who led the high-powered Bulldogs to nine wins, was named the Offensive Player of the Year, while one of the anchors of the LSU defense, linebacker Kevin Minter, was the Defensive Player of the Year. Tech running back Kenneth Dixon was the Freshman of the Year, while Louisiana star quarterback Terrance Broadway’s move from Houston earned him Newcomer of the year.

Finally, ULM’s Todd Berry, who will guide his team to its first ever bowl later this week in Shreveport, was named Coach of the Year.The voting process began after nominations were submitted by the sports information-media relations directors from the football playing schools in the state. Members of the Player of the Week voting committee as well as three media voters were allowed for each team. The nominating SIDs were not allowed under LSWA rules to vote for their own players and each SID had to submit a ballot to have their nominees votes allowed to be counted. All stats are through the end of the regular season and do not include post-season activities.Cameron, a senior from Newbury Park, Calif., was named the WAC Player of the Year in a year in which he set an NCAA record for most consecutive passes attempted without an interception (428). Cameron led an offense that was ranked No. 1 in scoring and No. 2 in total offense. He completed 359-of-522 passes for 4,147 yards and 31 touchdowns, completing 68.8 percent of his passes for an efficiency rating of 153.19 while averaging 345.6 passing yards a game. The Davey O’Brien Award semifinalist was No. 4 in the nation in total offense.

Minter earned All-American honors as he led the Tigers (3rd in the SEC) with 111 tackles. The finalist for the Butkus Award for the nation’s top linebacker, Minter earned National Player of the Week honors twice versus Florida and Texas A&M. Against Florida he set an LSU record with 17 solo tackles, while he helped hold A&M’s Johnny Manziel to his lowest outing of the season with 27 rushing yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions in the 24-19 LSU win. For the season, Minter had 13.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.

When Cameron was throwing the ball at Tech, it was going to Freshman of the Year choice Dixon, who hails from Strong, Ark. The true freshman led the nation in scoring with 28 total touchdowns (27 rushing) break’s Marshall Faulk’s NCAA records for most touchdowns scored, most rushing touchdowns scored and most points, all for a freshman.

Dixon had 200 rushes for 1,194 yards, just missing averaging 100 yards a game at 99.5. Dixon set the WAC record for most rushing touchdowns at any class level.

Louisiana quarterback Terrance Broadway, transferred from Houston, and made the most of the opportunity leading the Cajuns to a bowl and Newcomer of the Year honors.Broadway took over as the starter early in the year after Blaine Gautier was injured and completed 185-of-283 passes for 2,526 yards and 16 TDs. He was third in the SBC in passing efficiency (15.4) while setting a school record of completion percentage (65.1). Broadway posted 3,187 yards of total offense as he led the Cajuns to seven regular season wins.

Coach Berry took his team to a bowl in his third season at the helm of the Warhawk football program, posting an 8-4 overall record and a 6-2 mark in the Sun Belt (tying for second). ULM made an early splash with an overtime win over then-No. 8 Arkansas and the SBC Coach of the Year started 4-0 in the league to reach Bowl eligibility during the final weekend of October. The eight wins is the highest total for ULM during the FBS-era (1994-present).Joining Cameron and Dixon on the first team selected by the LSWA members were: offensive linemen Arinze Agada of McNeese, Josh Dworaczyk of LSU, Andre Huval of Louisiana and Oscar Johnson and Stephen Warner, both of Louisiana Tech. The tight end choice was Nick Scelfo of Nicholls with ULM’s Brent Leonard and Tech’s Quinton Patton at wide receiver. The other running back completing the first team was Ryan Montague of Louisiana College.With Minter on the first-team defense were linemen IK Enemkpali of Louisiana Tech, Barkevious Mingo and Sam Montgomery of LSU and Emeka Onyenekwau of Louisiana. Lamin Barrow of LSU and Derek Rose of Northwestern State were the other two linebackers while Robert Alford of Southeastern, Craig Loston and Eric Reid of LSU and Jemarlous Moten of Louisiana made up the defensive backfield.Two national award winners were on the specialists’ first team with Lou Groza winner Cairo Santos of Tulane the place kicker and two-time Ray Guy winner Ryan Allen of Louisiana Tech the punter. D. J. Banks, also of Louisiana Tech, was named the return specialist.