While the Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions football team only shares the Lone Star Conference North Division championship, falling short of its first winning season in six years, the team did, however, land 14 players on the 2007 All-Lone Star Conference North Division football team, with four others winning individual honors.?
Senior wide receiver JaMichael Palmer finished the season with 39 receptions for 487 yards and five touchdowns on his way to earning North Division Receiver of the Year.?
“It’s a great honor,” Palmer said. “It was kind of unexpected after only having three catches in my college career (before this season).”?
The receiving corps for the Lions tallied 2,166 yards and 18 touchdowns on the season, after totaling only 677 yards and four touchdowns in 2006.?
Senior wide receiver Meldrick Grice led the Lions in receiving this season ending with 504 yards and five touchdowns.?
Joining in the on the special individual awards on the offense were offensive lineman Darron Sheppard, who claimed a Co-Offensive Lineman of the Year award alongside Austin Ellis of Southwestern Oklahoma.?
Freshman wide receiver Chris Miller caught 15 passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns grabbing a Co-Freshman of the Year honor with Southwestern’s Jake Olivarez and Northeastern’s Jon Evans.?
Rounding out the special awards is lineman Marcus Smith, who notched the Defensive Lineman of the Year award.??”It means a lot,” Smith said. “I think I could do a lot better.”??Smith was first on the team and second in the LSC with 15 tackles for loss. He added 45 tackles, three sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.?
Nabbing first team honors on offense for A&M-C were running back Nabil El-Amin, Palmer, offensive linemen Deveon McKinney, Luis Salazar and Sheppard.?
El-Amin was also named to the first team as a return specialist.??Ending the season on a five-game stretch of eclipsing the 100-yard mark on the ground, El-Amin finished the season as the team’s leading rusher with 879 yards and six touchdowns on 211 carries. He also rounded up 537 yards and two touchdowns on 19 attempts as a kick returner. ?
First-teamers on defense included lineman A.J. Johnson, Smith, linebackers Garnet Smith and Faoki Fifita, cornerback Elliot Jones and safety Alex Contreras.?
Fifita anchored the defense with a team-leading 77 tackles and two interceptions. Contreras followed with 69 tackles, three interceptions and one fumble recovery.?
The defense ended the season ranked No. 3 overall in total defense in the Lone Star Conference after consecutive No. 1 finishes in 2005-06, and will look to stay amongst the best in the division next season.?
“I think we got a lot of people coming back,” Marcus Smith said. “I think we should have a pretty good defense next season.”??Quarterback Terry Mayo and punter Daniel Swaim are the only Lions to earn second-team honors with fullback Trae Grimes voted an honorable mention.?
Mayo gave the Lions something the team had been missing in previous seasons: a passing game.?
A&M-Commerce quarterbacks finished last season with 677 yards and four touchdowns. This year, Mayo totaled 1,414 yards and 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions on 114 of 216 passing alone.??Quarterback Trent Miller added 752 yards and seven touchdowns in a backup role.?
Grice noted the difference in the passing attacks saying, “I knew we wouldn’t throw it in the games (last year).”?
Swaim boomed 56 punts for a total of 2,173 yards and stopping 16 inside the 20-yard line. He also claimed four LSC North Division Special Team Player of the Week honors.?
The award-winning players helped the Lions do some things that hadn’t been done in a while at A&M-Commerce.
The Lions went on a four-game winning streak for the first time since 1995 and had a share in the LSC North Division title for the first time in their three years in the division.??A&M-Commerce (5-6, 3-2 LSC North), along with Southwestern Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma, Northeastern State and Central Oklahoma all share the division championship.??”I have never heard of that in my life,” Palmer said.?
While the team was unable to finish the season sitting alone atop the North, the year was not a disappointment.?
Grice said the team had an “up and down season, but overall it was pretty good. We had a chance to be champs outright and we had that TV game (against Pittsburg State (Kan.) to open the season.”