AFCA NAIA Football 2018 Coaches' All America Teams
(Waco, TX) The American Football Coaches Association announced the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) post-season honors Tuesday afternoon and redshirt-junior standout Joe Conner (JR/Flat Rock, MI) has been named to the AFCA-NAIA 1st Team All-America Team.
Conner's all-america honor comes after a successful campaign in which he was named the MSFA Offensive Player of the Year. Conner was also named first team all MSFA for the third consecutive year as he led the league rushing yards (1445), all-purposed yards (1711), and total touchdowns 20. This was the third consecutive season Conner reached over 1000 yards in a season.
The individual success for Conner was instrumental in leading the Cardinals to a program best 10 wins and a quarterfinal appearance in the NAIA Football Championship Series. The Cardinals were also recognized in every NAIA Football Coaches' Top 25 poll with the team receiving the highest ranking of 8th.
After red-shirting his first year as a Cardinal, Conner has ran for 3946 rushing yards in three season and has totaled 4665 all-purpose yard. Conner has also scored 43 touchdowns (41 rushing and 2 receiving). Conner is the leading rusher in Cardinal history.
In addition to Conner's All-Conference First team recognition the last three years and MSFA Offensive Player of the Year, Conner was named the MSFA Mideast Offensive Player of the Week twice. This totals six times that Conner has received the award. Conner was also named the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Offensive Student-Athlete of the week three times.
Conner joins Takari Johnson (2014) as the only other Cardinals to be named to the AFCA NAIA first team All-America.
