TECH FOOTBALL COACHES NAME THEIR MVPS FROM HARDING GAME

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – The Arkansas Tech football coaching staff has selected its Most Valuable Players from this past Saturday’s season finale at Harding.

The coaches named co-Offensive MVPs as senior receiver Chris Gunter (Beebe, Ark.) and junior receiver Tracey Stiger (Russellville, Ark.) shared honors this week. The MVP honor was the first of the season for Gunter and the fifth of the season for Stiger, including earning four offensive MVP awards (Valdosta State, Ouachita Baptist, Southern Arkansas and Harding) and was the Special Teams MVP after the West Georgia game. Gunter earns this week’s honor after catching a team-high nine passes for 111 yards in Tech’s 62-55 loss to the Bisons, while Stiger earns the honor after catching five passes for 61 yards and scoring two touchdowns and added a third touchdown when he returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown to give the Wonder Boys a 55-48 lead a less than a minute into the fourth quarter. In addition, Stiger returned two punts for 69 yards and added two kickoff returns for 40 yards in the season finale.

Meanwhile, on special teams, junior kicker/punter Michael Podobnik (Frankfort, Ill.) earns his fourth honor of the season. Podobnik earns this week’s Special Teams MVP after punting four times for 210 yards and averaging 52.5 yards per punt, which set a new single-game school record for punting average. In addition, he placed two punts inside the 20-yard line, had one touchback and recorded a 63 yard boot in the fourth quarter against the Bisons.

Tech Head Football Coach Steve Mullins said that the coaches did not award MVP honors on defense this week. 

Other Tech Football News:

* - Podobnik reclaimed the top spot in this week’s NCAA Division II national punting statistics as the junior finished the season with 43 punts for 1,945 yards and averaged 45.2 yards per punt. Podobnik, who entered last weekend’s game at Harding in second place in the national punting statistics behind Clark Atlanta’s Brandon Larkin, closed out the season with a 52.5 yard average on four punts against the Bisons to take over the national lead. Larkin fell to third in week’s national punting statistics with a 44.1 average, while Adams State punter Wayne Durham moved up to second this week. Durham has a 44.2 yard average on the season.

* - Here is a look back at some of the records and milestones Tech set in last Saturday’s season finale against Harding.

- With his second quarter touchdown this past Saturday, senior running back R.J. Vanhook (Prescott, Ark.) moved to eighth on the school’s career scoring chart with 176 points. In addition, he finishes fifth on the school’s career rushing chart with 2,543 yards.

- Stiger scored three touchdowns in the game for the second time this season as he also scored three times against Ouachita Baptist on Oct. 20.

- Junior quarterback Justin Ray (Benton, Ark.) became the first Tech player to score four touchdowns in a game since Ed Duncan accomplished the feat in 1999.

- Stiger’s punt return for a touchdown was the first by a Wonder Boy since Greg Washington returned a punt 75 yards for a score against Ouachita Baptist in 2001.

- With his 11 catches on Saturday against Harding, Gunter finished 10th on the school’s career pass receptions list with 93. In his four years at Tech, Gunter caught 93 passes for 846 yards and scored six touchdowns and amassed 943 all-purpose yards.

- Stiger caught five passes against Harding, which moved the junior to eighth on the school’s career pass receptions list with 98 and he tied for 10th with Mark Millwood (1981) on the school’s single-season pass reception list with 47 catches this season.

- With his five sacks this season, junior linebacker Cedric Cursh (Foreman, Ark.) moved into a tie for fourth place on the school’s career sacks list with 16 and is 12 sacks shy of tying the school record of 28 held by Tommy Edwards (2000-03).

- The 117 combined points by both teams was the second highest total in a single game in school history and was one shy of the school record of 118, which was set in 1922 when Tech defeated Southern Arkansas, 118-0.

- Tech ran a school-record 98 plays against the Bisons (59 rushes/39 passes). The previous record was 90 plays set in 2003 against Delta State.

- The 49.5 average on its five punts set a new single-game school record for the Wonder Boys. The previous record was 48.0 and that was set in 1993 against Arkansas-Monticello. In addition, Tech also set a new school record for punting average as the Wonder Boys averaged 42.2 yards per punt this season, which bettered the old mark of 41.3 set in 2003.

- With its 177 yards in kickoff returns against Harding, Tech set a new single-season school mark (1,039 yards) for kickoff return yardage. The previous record of 971 was set in 1993.

- Podobnik averaged 52.5 yards per punt in last Saturday’s game with Harding. The 52.5 yards per punt average set a new single-game school record for punting average. The old mark of 51.0 set by Greg Ivy was set in 1991 against McMurry. In addition, he averaged 45.2 yards per punt this season to set the school’s new single-season punt average mark and also a new GSC single-season mark. The previous mark of 42.0 was set in 2003 by Edwards.

- With his two kickoff returns against Harding, Stiger moves into a tie with LaRon Marbley (1994-97) for first on the school’s career kickoff returns chart with 79. In addition, Stiger set a new career kickoff return mark with 1,714 yards in the process. The 1,714 yards betters the previous record of 1,689 yards held by Marbley.

-- Tech Athletics --