2011 All-South Region D3football.com Team
ABILENE, Texas – Hal Mumme and six of his players were honored by D3football.com Monday. Mumme was named South Region Coach of the Year while
Will Morris and
Delfonte Diamond earned first team honors for McMurry University. The War Hawks finished the season 9-3 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III Playoffs.
Diamond, the senior tight end, and Morris the senior free safety were honored as first team members while junior quarterback
Jake Mullin, senior offensive guard
Bertrick Ervin, and junior cornerback
D.J. Baiza were second-team honorees. Junior defensive end
Corey Hall was a third-team all-South Region defensive team selection.
Mumme took over McMurry's program that went 0-10 in 2008 and 16-63 from 2001 to 2008 and turned the War Hawks into a playoff team by his third season. Mumme led the team to a 4-6 record in 2009, a 6-4 mark in 2010, and tied the school's record for wins with a 9-3 season this year.
The War Hawks defeated Trinity Nov. 19 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Playoffs for the program's first playoff victory of any kind. McMurry's season came to an end the next Saturday in a loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Diamond, the Houston native, caught 71 passes for 930 yards and eight touchdowns in 12 games this season for the War Hawks. He was a first-team all-American Southwest Conference selection earlier this season.
Morris earned his second-straight first-team all-region honor from D3football.com finishing the year with 90 tackles, five interceptions, five pass breakups, three forced fumbles and one recovery.
Mullin, the ASC Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-ASC member, passed for 3,371 yards and 29 touchdowns in 11 games while completing 64 percent of his passes. Earlier in the season he became McMurry's all-time passing yardage leader and through three seasons he has 8,979 yards passing and 89 touchdown passes.
Ervin followed up his first-team all-ASC selection with the all-region honor. He anchored an offensive line that boasted the No. 1 passing offense in the nation and allowed only four sacks all season long on 556 team pass attempts. He also led the team in pancake blocks and along with Diamond was a four-year player who saw McMurry go winless his freshman season to a playoff team when he left.
Baiza had an all-around season for McMurry at defensive back and return specialist. He blocked three kicks, returned two punts for touchdowns while adding 44 tackles, five interceptions, seven pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
Corey Hall led the team with 14 tackles for a loss, 5.5 sacks, forced four fumbles, blocked two kicks, intercepted a pass and was credited with five quarterback hurries to accompany 52 tackles.
D3football.com began handing out all-America awards in 2003 and all-region honors in 2005. Morris and Desmond Baker were each the first McMurry players honored with all-South Region honors in 2010.
