FRANTZ SIMEON NAMED GSC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech’s Frantz Simeon has been named this week’s Gulf South Conference Offensive Player of the Week following his record setting performance in Tech’s 62-30 homecoming win Saturday over West Georgia.

Simeon, a senior receiver from Belle Glade, Fla., earns his second Player of the Week honor this season after being named the league’s Special Teams Player of the Week following the Incarnate Word game on Sept. 5. In addition, it is the fourth time this season that Tech has had a player honored by the league as senior quarterback Nick Graziano (Moraga, Calif.) was named the Offensive Player of the Week on Aug. 31 and Sept. 28, while junior defensive back Tario Dansby (Ashdown, Ark.) was named the Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 28.

In Saturday’s homecoming win over West Georgia, Simeon caught 10 passes for a single-game school record 216 yards and also caught a school record four touchdown passes to help the Wonder Boys offense put up season highs in both points (62) and total yards (637). All of Simeon’s four touchdown receptions came in the first half, led by a 65-yard scoring strike and a 52-yarder in the second quarter. Along with his pass catching, Simeon also combined to accumulate 259 all-purpose yards as he returned two kickoffs for 45 yards and had one punt return for minus-2 yards. Simeon’s 216 receiving yards bettered the old school mark of 207 yards held by former Wonder Boy Alan King against Missouri Southern in 1988, while the four touchdown receptions breaks the old mark of three that was held by seven players, most recently set by former Wonder Boy Tracey Stiger against Ouachita Baptist in 2007. The four touchdown receptions is also tied for second-most in a game in GSC history.

Along with Simeon, the league named North Alabama senior strong safety Quinton Andrews as the Defensive Player of the Week, while Southern Arkansas junior punter Zach Massingill earned the Special Teams Player of the Week honor.

Andrews earned the defensive honor after spearheading the No. 2 ranked Lions defense in its 34-24 come-from-behind win last Thursday at home over Delta State on the “GSC-TV Live” Game of the Week. In the win over the Statesmen, Andrews had 18 tackles, including 12 solo stops and stopped a pair of potential touchdowns by running down a pair of DSU runners from behind. In addition, Andrews had a hand in each of DSU’s three turnovers, as he forced two fumbles, recovering one of them and helped seal UNA’s win by returning an interception 40 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Massingill earns his first-ever Special Teams honor from the league after headlining SAU’s special teams in its 15-7 home win over Ouachita Baptist. Against the Tigers, Massingill punted nine times for 365 yards and averaged 40.6 yards punt, including downing four punts inside the 20-yard line. For the game, OBU’s offense had an average starting point at its own 15-yard line and the Tigers totaled just 31 punt return yards for the game.

Simeon and the Wonder Boys (5-2 overall, 3-2 GSC) return to action on Saturday, Oct. 24, when they travel to Arkadelphia, Ark., to face off against Henderson State (3-4 overall, 3-2 GSC) in a 3 p.m. contest in Carpenter-Haygood Stadium on the HSU campus. HSU hasn’t played since suffering a 33-20 loss at Valdosta State on Oct. 10 as the Reddies were off last weekend. 

Other Tech Football Notes:

          * - Upon reviewing the GSC Football Record Book on Sunday, Tech tied a GSC record with its seven touchdown passes against West Georgia. Tech now shares that touchdown passing mark with nine other teams. In addition, Graziano’s six touchdown passes is second-most on the GSC’s single-game touchdown pass list.  

-- Tech Athletics --