Football: Tovell, Robinson named to All-Sun Belt first team

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Dec. 10, 2015

UL linebacker Dominique Tovell and wide receiver Jamal Robinson earned 2015 All-Sun Belt Conference first team honors Wednesday.

Both are outgoing fifth-year seniors for the Ragin’ Cajuns, who finished their 2015 season at 4-8.

“Real proud of them,” Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth said Wednesday.

Tovell, a product of Columbia High in Mississippi, finished with a team-high 76 total tackles including a team-leading 53 solo stops.

He also had a team-high 14.5 tackles for loss, including a team-leading 7.0 sacks, and finished the regular season tied for third in the Sun Belt in total sacks and tied for fourth in TFLs.

“Tovell has been the mainstay of this program,” Hudspeth said.

“He’s been the heart-and-soul of this defense for four years. He’s just that steady guy; never missed a practice, I don’t think he ever missed a game. Just a true Ragin’ Cajun through-and-through.”

Robinson, from Salmen High in Slidell, bounced back from minor knee surgery and major foot surgery in 2014 to record a team-high 54 catches for a team-leading 824 yards and five touchdowns.

He finished the regular season fifth in the Sun Belt in receiving yards per game at 68.7, and concluded his career as UL’s No. 3 all-time receiver by total receiving yards (No. 4 by total catches).

“Jamal had a really strong second half of the season, and really started coming into his own a little bit and getting more confident,” Hudspeth said. “He played banged up. I gave him credit.

“The other night (last Saturday, in a season-ending loss to Troy) he went until his body couldn’t go no more.”

One Cajun was named to the All-Sun Belt second team: cornerback Savion Brown, a junior who had a team-high three interceptions (tied for fifth-most in the SBC during the regular season).

Brown is a product of Fair Park High in Shreveport who transferred to UL from Tyler Junior College in Texas.

Four other Cajuns received All-Sun Belt honorable mention: senior offensive tackle Octravian Anderson, who started every game for three straight seasons; senior defensive lineman Chris Prater, who battled back from a concussion to finish the year with 26 total tackles in 10 games; junior running back Elijah McGuire, who has had 1,000-plus rushing yards for two straight seasons; and junior linebacker Otha Peters, a transfer from the University of Arkansas who had 68 total tackles in his first season playing for the Cajuns.

Named to the Sun Belt All-Newcomer team from UL was true freshman Steven Coutts, an Aussie who averaged 42.4 yards per punt with 14-of-59 that went 50-plus yards including a long of 64 and 22-of-59 that landed inside the 20-yard line.

Georgia State quarterback Nick Arbuckle was named Sun Belt Player of the Year after throwing for a league-high 4,160 yards and 26 touchdowns and getting the Panthers to the Cure Bowl in Orlando.

New Mexico State’s Larry Rose III is the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year after rushing for a league-high 1,651 yards, Appalachian State defensive lineman Ronald Blair is the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year after making a league-high 18.0 TFLs and Georgia State’s Penny Hart is the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year after compiling a league-high 1,095 receiving yards.

Georgia State’s Trent Miles, who turned the Panthers from perennial losers to a bowl team in a few short seasons, was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year.

Arbuckle was the first team All-Sun Belt quarterback, while Rose and Georgia Southern’s Matt Breida were the first team All-SBC running backs.