VIDEO: Fortune Woods postgame interview
VIDEO: Reinhardt Cinematic Highlights
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman junior defensive lineman Fortune Woods (Hammond, Ind.) has been named the WePlayed Sports SAC Special Teams Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday afternoon.
Woods scored the first touchdown of the season for Carson-Newman when he recovered a blocked punt in the end zone midway through the first quarter in the Eagles' 50-7 rout of No, 18 Reinhardt.
The blocked punt returned for a touchdown is the 13th in school history and the first since EJ Davis' 0-yard touchdown return at Catawba from 2021.
Woods special teams touchdown is the first that Carson-Newman has ever scored in the month of August as a program.
It marks just the second time in school history that the first points Carson-Newman scored in a season came on special teams. Former head coach and consensus All-American linebacker Mike Clowney started Carson-Newman's scoring during the 1993 season when he returned a blocked punt for a touchdown against Central State.
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Woods was also active defensively, registering three tackles and a tackle for loss.
Woods is Carson-Newman's first SAC Special Teams Player of the Week honoree since Major Williams was recognized the final week of the 2022 season.
The accolade is a rare honor for a defensive lineman. Woods joins Lenoir-Rhyne's TJ Blanding (Limestone in 2023), as well as Carson-Newman's Trayzel Jureidini-Wyche (Erskine in 2022) and Justin Long (Limestone in 2015) as the only non-return men/kickers to be recognized as special teams players of the week in the last decade.
Woods and the rest of the Eagles are off for week one before travelling to the Mountain State to take on West Virginia State on Sept. 12. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 5 with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
