IRVING — Josiah Tauaefa was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman Team in a vote of the league's 13 head coaches, the conference office announced on Tuesday.
Tauaefa leads the Roadrunners with a program single-season record 104 tackles through the campaign's first 12 games and he also has racked up 7.5 TFLs, five sacks, seven QB hurries and an interception. The redshirt freshman linebacker currently ranks third among Football Bowl Subdivision freshmen in tackles. He opened his career with 13 stops and a pair of sacks against Alabama State (Sept. 3) and just missed the school's single-game record when he recorded 15 at Old Dominion three weeks later (Sept. 24). The 6-foot-1, 230-pound former defensive end added another 12 against Southern Miss (Oct. 8) en route to C-USA Defensive Player of the Week accolades and 10 more at Rice the following week (Oct. 15).
The remainder of the all-conference teams are expected to be released by the league office later this morning.
UTSA (6-6) will play in its first-ever bowl game on Saturday, Dec. 17, when it squares off with New Mexico (8-4) at the Gildan New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CT) and the contest can be seen nationally on ESPN.
2016 Conference USA All—Freshman Team
Offense
QB — Mason Fine, North Texas
RB — Quinton Baker, Western Kentucky
RB — Devin Singletary, Florida Atlantic
WR — Ty Lee, Middle Tennessee
WR — Stantley Thomas, FIU
TE — Harrison Bryant, Florida Atlantic
OL — Levi Brown, Marshall
OL — Devin Hannan, Old Dominion
OL — Greg Long, UTEP
OL — Ty Pollard, Southern Miss
OL — Ethan Reed, Louisiana Tech
Defense
DL — LaDarius Hamilton, North Texas
DL — Eric Kendzior, Louisiana Tech
DL — Tyshun Render, Middle Tennessee
DL — Chris Richardson, UTEP
DL — Ty Tyler, Marshall
LB — Tyriq Harris, Charlotte
LB — Josiah Tauaefa, UTSA
LB — Jayson VanHook, UTEP
DB — Ben DeLuca, Charlotte
DB — Chris Jackson, Marshall
DB — Ephraim Kitchen, Louisiana Tech
DB — Justin Rogers, UTEP
Special Teams
PK — Brad Davis, Old Dominion
P — Bailey Cate, Old Dominion
KR — Kerrith Whyte, Florida Atlantic
PR — Darrell Brown, Old Dominion
LS — Matt Beardall, Marshall
