Arkansas Tech football players Nick Graziano, Frantz Simeon, Torrence Wright and Landon Turner added to their already long list of postseason awards on Tuesday when they were named to the Don Hansen Football Gazette NCAA Division II All-America team.
That quartet was the driving force behind an offense that re-wrote the Arkansas Tech offensive record book during the 2009 season. The Wonder Boys finished 9-3 overall and they reached the second round of the NCAA Division II Playoffs.
Graziano (photographed), a senior from Moraga, Calif., completed 333-of-538 passes for 4,313 yards and 38 touchdowns this season. He broke Gulf South Conference records for total offense (4,768 yards) and passing (4,313 yards) in a season.
Arkansas Tech individual single-season records for total offense, passing yardage, pass completions, pass attempts and touchdown passes also fell at Graziano’s feet.
Despite playing just one season at Tech, Graziano ranks fourth in school history in both career total offense and career passing yardage.
Simeon established new single-season school records with 90 receptions, 1,359 receiving yards and 14 touchdown catches in 2009. He is a senior wide receiver from Belle Glade, Fla.
Turner, a senior wide receiver from Destrehan, La., made 86 catches for 1,164 yards and nine touchdowns this season. His numbers for receptions and receiving yardage are the second-highest single-season totals in Arkansas Tech history.
This year marked the first time in school history that Arkansas Tech had two receivers with more than 1,000 receiving yards in the same season. In fact, before this year, only two Wonder Boys had ever reached 1,000 receiving yards in a season (Steve Daniels, 1,084 in 1996; Rick Thone, 1,036 in 1971).
Wright is a senior center from Sulphur Springs, Texas. He was offensive line captain for a unit that only allowed 10 quarterback sacks in 580 pass attempts this season. That ranks Arkansas Tech among the top five teams in NCAA Division II for fewest sacks allowed in 2009.
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