Murray State senior Pokey Harris was named to the 2015 STATS FCS preseason All-American team Thursday as a first-team kick returner. It was his second All-America honor of the preseason, having previously been named to the Athlon team.
Harris was the top returner in FCS in 2014, taking back a nation-leading three kick-off returns for touchdowns and finishing seventh in the nation in yards per return at 28.8, both of which also led the OVC. In addition, Harris finished 2014 second in the OVC and 23rd in the country in all-purpose yards at 138.4 per game and first in the OVC and eighth in all of the FCS in total return yards at 920.
The Winchester, Kentucky native made history at Eastern Illinois last season when he became the first Racer ever to return a kick-off 100 yards for a touchdown. One week later he repeated the feat at EKU, becoming the third-ever OVC player with two 100-yard returns for a touchdown and the first to do it in consecutive games.
Harris was named to eight separate All-America first-teams in the postseason, including five of the seven universally recognized teams by the FCS Athletic Directors Association, the Sports Network and the Walter Camp Football Foundation, the College Sporting News and TonySoftli.com. In addition to those teams, he was also named to the Beyond Sports Network team, the College Sports Madness team and College Football Performance Awards teams.
It was also announced Thursday that STATS would be continuing and expanding The Sports Network’s coverage of the FCS, which it purchased in February. Senior writer and long-time FCS advocate Craig Haley will continue to lead the coverage.
As part of its new expanded coverage, STATS will have a website that will be solely dedicated to the FCS. In the coming weeks, they will also announce the preseason watch lists for offensive and defensive player of the year awards, as well its plan for postseason awards. The preseason STATS FCS Top 25 poll will be released on Aug. 10.
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