VALDOSTA, Ga. – Carson-Newman graduate return specialist DeQuan Dudley (Harvey, Ill.) has earned second-team All-Region honors from the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association, the organization announced Thursday.
Dudley adds the all-region accolade to his first-team All-SAC laurels.
Dudley, the national special teams player of the week for games played on Oct. 9, put himself in the C-N record books by returning two, 100-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns against Catawba. They are the fifth and sixth, 100-yard returns in Carson-Newman history.
Dudley also reset the single-game record for Carson-Newman kickoff return yards with 229. He joins Kendall James as the only Eagles to return multiple kicks for a score in a single game. He is one of 11 in Division II history with multiple kickoff returns for scores in a single game.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) October 12, 2021
The @D2Football National Special Teams Player of the Week is @cnfootball's @Houdiniwayyyy (DeQuan Dudley) pic.twitter.com/7dzhROdlL3
He set an NCAA Division II record for yards per kickoff return with 76.3 besting a 39-year-old mark set by Cal Poly's Clarence Martin in 1982 against Cal Poly Pomona.
The 76.3 yards per return are the second most among all NCAA Divisions. Only Division III's Elijah Rehm of Rowan averaged more per return - 84.7 yds per return against Widener to be exact - on Aug. 30, 2018 (three returns for 254 yds).
Against Catawba, Dudley also returned four punts for 62 yards with a long of 27 yards.
Dudley finished the year fourth in the country in yards per kickoff return with 33.5. He was one of six players in the nation to return two kicks for scores on the year.
He finished the year with 641 combined return yardage between kickoffs and punts, a figure that ranks 12th in the country.
Dudley is Carson-Newman's first all-region return specialist since Lonnie Williams was lauded in 2014.
