Nov. 29, 2005
DALLAS (SMU) - SMU placed seven players on the 2005 All-Conference USA squads and two more on the All-Freshman team, the league announced Tuesday.
Leading the way were juniors Justin Rogers and Joe Sturdivant, both of whom nabbed second-team honors. Rogers led C-USA in sacks in league games with six and ranked in the top seven in tackles-for-loss and forced fumbles. He had 64 total stops on the year to go along with 10.5 tackle-for-loss and three forced fumbles. Sturdivant notched 112 tackles to lead SMU, the most tackles for a Mustang since Vic Viloria had 126 stops in 2000.He led C-USA in passes defended and ranked fourth in tackles, while twice being named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week.
Five more Mustangs were named to the third team - Bobby Chase, Jamey Harper, Adrian Haywood, Jessie Henderson and Rolando Humphrey. Chase's 2005 season is perhaps best remembered for two spectacular catches - a 31-yard game-winning TD as time expired at UAB and a 29-yard juggling TD catch against UTEP. With 625 yards on the season, Chase is just the 14th player in school history to break the 600-yard single-season barrier. Harper ranked third in C-USA in interceptions with four and finished the season with 71 stops, ranking 24th in the league. Haywood exploded over the second half of the season, finishing as the league-leader in tackles-for-loss in C-USA games with 11 and ranking third in sacks with five. Perhaps most impressive was the fact that all 11 of Haywood's tackles-for-loss occurred in the last five games and four of his five sacks came in the season's final two games. Henderson made the squad as a kick returner after leading C-USA and ranking 13th in the NCAA with a 27.6 yard-per-return average. He returned a kick 88 yards for a TD against Tulane and recorded 179 yards on just four returns against the Green Wave - the third-best single-game effort in SMU history. Humphrey tied for fourth in league games in interceptions with four while ranking in the top 40 in tackles with 65.
Henderson and DeMyron Martin were SMU's selections for the C-USA All-Freshman team. Henderson again was honored for his kick return skills while Martin was tabbed at running back. Martin finished the year with 854 yards, just missing the SMU freshman record of 884. He also tallied nine scores, the most for a Mustang since Rodnick Phillips had 10 back in 1998 and the ninth-most in the nation among freshman in 2005. He ranked fourth in rushing in the league in conference games with a 91 yard-per-game average.
