The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced its 2024 Football Postseason Individual Awards on Monday morning. The individual awards were voted on by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors. In order to be considered for postseason awards, a student-athlete must have participated in a minimum of 75 percent of team games played this season.
Jackson State’s T.C. Taylor was named Coach of the Year, while the Tigers’ Irv Mulligan was tabbed Offensive Player of the Year. Southern’s Givens was named Co-Defensive Player of the Year along with Grambling State’s Andrew Jones. Florida A&M’s Daniel Richardson was selected Newcomer of the Year and Jackson State’s Travis Terrell Jr. was named Freshman of the Year rounding out the list of individual selections.
Coach of the Year
In his second season as the head coach at Jackson State, Taylor has led the team to a 10-2 record and a perfect regular season record (8-0) in league play. For his efforts, Taylor was named a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, the National Coach of the Year.
Offensive Player of the Year
Since being inserted into the starting lineup, Mulligan has helped lead Jackson State to a 9-1 record during a 10-game stretch and helped lead the Tigers to a 10-2 regular season record and a SWAC East Division title.
The league’s leading rusher has tallied 100-plus yards five times and leads the conference as the only rusher with 1,000 yards on the season (becoming the 13th player in school history to reach that mark). For his efforts, Mulligan was named a finalist on the Walter Payton Award Watch List.
Co-Defensive Player of the Year
Givens leads the nation and the league in tackles for loss (26.5) and has been a key contributor for a Southern Jaguars team that claimed the 2024 SWAC West Division title with a 7-1 conference record. He ranks eighth in the nation in sacks while racking second in the league in that category.
Co-Defensive Player of the Year
Jones has been a significant contributor for the Grambling State Tigers defense this season as he led the league in total tackles with 122 during the season. He was one of two players in the conference to tally over 100 stops this season. He ranks ninth in the country in tackles and fourth in tackles for loss this season.
Newcomer of the Year
Richardson stepped into the role of starting quarterback for the Florida A&M Rattlers and made an immediate impact for the Rattlers offensively. During 12 games played he passed for league leading 2,662 yards (14th in the nation) while throwing a league leading 23 touchdown passes ranking 16th in the country. He averaged 221.8 yards per game while tallying a league leading 231 total completions.
Freshman of the Year
Terrell was named one of 25 finalists for the Jerry Rice Award, the National Freshman of the Year award after an impressive debut campaign for Jackson State. He is among the nation’s leaders in several categories, including leading the nation in kickoff return touchdowns with two. He also ranks fourth in kickoff returns (30.4), third in punt returns (17.3), fourth in combined kick returns (792), and 19th in all-purpose yards (116.6).
