IRVING — Josiah Tauaefa put a wrap on two days of honors from Conference USA when he was tabbed the league's Freshman of the Year on Wednesday.
Tauaefa, who earned first-team all-conference and C-USA All-Freshman Team honors on Tuesday, became the first Roadrunner to ever earn a conference postseason individual award in program history. The redshirt freshman linebacker also is the first player to earn first-team C-USA accolades in UTSA's four years in the league and the second player to earn a spot on a league's top team overall (Triston Wade was a 2012 first-team All-Western Athletic Conference pick).
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. He currently ranks third among Football Bowl Subdivision freshmen in tackles this year. The 6-foot-1, 230-pounder 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 registered 15 at Old Dominion three weeks later (Sept. 24). Tauaefa, who moved to linebacker from defensive end last spring, 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).
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.
