Complete List of FCS CFPA Winners
Murray State punt returner Dontrell Johnson and Austin Peay kick returner Terrence Holt have been honored with 2010 College Football Performance Awards (CFPA). Johnson won the FCS Elite Punt Returner Award while Holt took home the FCS Elite Kickoff Returner Award.
The 2010 season marked the first season that the CFPA has honored players from the FCS. The CFPA announced it award recipients Wednesday that includes 52 D-I Football Bowl Series (FBS) & FCS winners.
The purpose of the College Football Performance Awards is to provide the most scientifically rigorous conferments in college football. Recipients are selected exclusively based upon objective scientific rankings of the extent to which individual players increase the overall effectiveness of their teams.
As prominent scholars from a wide variety of disciplines note, CFPA eliminates the politics and biases that vitiate balloting-based awards. Furthermore, CFPA is the only awards organization to receive praise from both Republican and Democratic White House officials for promoting objectivity and fairness in college football.
Johnson was electrifying in the return game, as he set a school record by returning two punts for touchdowns, while leading the FCS with a 22.80 yard average per return. After having never returned a punt until the third game of the season, Johnson proved to be the spark plug that turned around the Racers season, as he took a punt 91 yards for a touchdown to help propel the Racers to a 52-16 victory over UT Martin. Just one week later, Johnson took a fourth-quarter punt 70 yards for a touchdown as MSU nearly pulled out an improbable comeback on the road against then-No. 4 Jacksonville State.
Johnson was first honored by the CFPA following the UTM game, as the National Punt Returner of the Week. He was also selected as the special teams player of the week by TSN, as well as OVC Specialist of the Week.
Holt, a first-team All-OVC selection this season as a return specialist and a second-team pick as a running back, owns multiple NCAA records. Entering the 2010 season, he was the only player in NCAA history to record a trio of 1,000-yard kickoff return seasons. He finished his final season with 1,100 yards, including a 95-yard kickoff return for a score against UT Martin-it was his fourth career kickoff return for a TD and sixth overall special teams score (he also had two punt returns for TDs).
A 2009 All-America who was named to multiple 2010 preseason teams, Holt owns the NCAA record for career kickoff return yards (4,683) and combined kickoff + punt return yards (5,230) along with 191 career kickoff returns and combined kickoff + punt returns (241). He also had an OVC record of 7,512 career all-purpose yards, including 2,049 this season-his 186.27 yards per game ranking third nationally. In fact, as a running back, Holt finished with 793 yards (5.4 ypc) and eight TDs, including a trio of 100-yard rushing performances. Despite not serving as No. 1 tailback until the final three games of his senior season, Holt ended his career ninth on APSU's all-time rushing list with 1939 yards, including 23 touchdowns. Those 23 TDs and his 174 points rank fourth all-time in APSU history