Hawkins, Robinson named Walter Camp All-Americans

[DEC. 12, 2005]  NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- For the first time in the history of the Illinois State football program, the Redbirds have two representatives on the Walter Camp Football Foundation I-AA All-America Team in the same season. Gateway Football Conference Players of the Year Brent Hawkins and Laurent Robinson were named to the 2005 version of college football's elite on Friday.

Hawkins and Robinson are only the third and fourth ISU players to be honored by the Walter Camp Foundation, joining linebacker Boomer Grigsby, who was chosen last year, and punter Mike McCabe, honored in 1988. The team, selected by the head coaches and sports information directors of the Division I-AA football schools, is certified by UHY Advisors, a New Haven-based accounting firm.

Robinson, who finished 10th in the 2005 Walter Payton Award voting, ranks No. 1 nationally in yards per game, with 133.2, and No. 2 in catches per contest, with 7.8. He set league and school season marks with 1,465 receiving yards on a conference-tying-best 86 catches.

The three-time GFC Offensive Player of the Week posted six 100-yard receiving games, including two games of 200 yards or more, highlighted by his 292 receiving yards on 14 catches against Indiana State in the season finale. The Rockledge, Fla., native finished with 12 touchdown catches.

Hawkins, a 2005 Buck Buchanan Award finalist, finished the regular season leading all of Division I-AA in tackles for loss and forced fumbles, while ranking second in sacks. His 17 quarterback sacks set the Illinois State and Gateway Conference single-season records, while he also claimed the school mark for tackles for loss in a season, with 26.5, and forced fumbles, with seven.

The Godfrey native was named the conference player of the week twice and was the national player of the week once, after his five-sack performance against conference co-champion Northern Iowa. He also led all league defensive linemen with 67 tackles.

Walter Camp, "the father of American football," first selected an all-America team in 1889. Camp, a former Yale University athlete and football coach, is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries, and the restriction of play to 11 men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation, a New Haven-based all-volunteer group, was founded in 1967 to perpetuate Camp's ideals and to continue the tradition of selecting all-America teams for I-A and I-AA.

[Illinois State University news release from Todd Kober, assistant athletics director, media relations]

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