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NICK GRAZIANO REPEATS AS GSC FOOTBALL OFFENSIVE PLAYER
OF THE WEEK
RUSSELLVILLE,
Arkansas
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Arkansas Tech’s Nick Graziano has repeated as
this week’s Gulf South Conference Offensive Player of
the Week following his record-setting effort in leading
the Wonder Boys to its 35-23 win Saturday at home on
Senior Night over Delta State.
 Graziano,
a transfer from the University of Nevada, earns this
fourth Offensive Player of the Week accolade this season
and second straight honor as he was also honored by the
league last week following the Henderson State game,
along with being honored on Aug. 31 and Sept. 28. It is
the seventh time this season that Tech has had a player
honored by the league as a Player of the Week as senior
receiver/return specialist Frantz Simeon (Belle
Glade, Fla.) was named the Special Teams Player of the
Week on Oct. 17 and Sept. 7, while senior kicker/punter
Travis Cockerham (Bryant, Ark.) was named the
Special Teams Player of the Week last Monday and junior
defensive back Tario Dansby (Ashdown, Ark.) was
named the Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 28.
With his fourth Offensive Player of the Week honor,
Graziano becomes the first GSC player to earn Offensive
Player of the Week accolades four times in one season
since Valdosta State’s Lance Funderburk was honored by
the league four times during the 1996 season. In
addition, Graziano becomes just the second Wonder Boy
and first since Ed Duncan in 1999 to earn three
or more Offensive Player of the Week honors in a single
season.
In Saturday’s home win over Delta State, Graziano
accounted for 546 of Tech’s 632 total yards of offense,
as the Moraga, Calif., native carried the ball 15 times
for 196 yards and scored on an 82-yard touchdown run in
the fourth quarter to give the Wonder Boys a 35-17 edge
and he was 27-for-54 passing for 350 yards and had two
touchdowns and one interception. The 546 yards of
offense is a single-game Tech record and also the
sixth-best total offensive effort in GSC history. Along
with gaining a school record 546 yards of offense,
Graziano
also became Tech’s single-season leader in passing yards
(3,013 yards), total offense (3,402 yards) and touchdown
passes (27). All three of those school marks were
formally held by former Wonder Boy Jason Campbell
in 2004 as he passed for 2,922 yards, gained 2,924 yards
of total offense and threw 26 touchdown passes. Along
with setting those records, Graziano became the school’s
single-season leader in pass completions as he has
completed 225 passes this season, which is one better
than Harlon Hill Trophy candidate Cole Barthel
(224) had last season.
Along with Graziano, the league named Harding redshirt
freshman linebacker Kennard Henderson and Southern
Arkansas punter Zach Massingill as the GSC Defensive and
Special Teams Players of the Week respectively.
Henderson becomes the second Harding defender to claim
Defensive Player of the Week accolades this season as he
helped spearhead the Bisons defense to its 27-22 win
Saturday at home over Henderson State. Against the
Reddies, Henderson collected a career-high 14 total
tackles, including seven solo stops, along with forcing
a fumble and also returning a fumble 50 yards for a
touchdown to give Harding a 21-10 lead in the third
quarter.
Massingill earns this second special teams honor in the
past three weeks in helping lead SAU to a 24-22
non-conference win Saturday at Incarnate Word. In the
win over the Cardinals, Massingill punted five teams for
223 yards and averaged 44.6 yards per punt. For the
game, he downed two of his punt inside the 20-yard line
and also had a 66-yard punt in the win.
Graziano and the rest of his Wonder Boy teammates
conclude the 2009 regular season on Saturday, Nov. 7,
when they travel to Searcy, Ark., to face Harding (5-5
overall, 3-4 GSC) in a 2 p.m. game at First Security
Stadium on the Harding campus. Tech enters Saturday’s
game looking to remain in the hunt to earn an NCAA
Division II Playoff berth as the Wonder Boys are
sporting a 7-2 overall record and 5-2 mark in the GSC.
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Tech Athletics -- |