Seven Polar Bears named All-Ohio Athletic Conference in Football for 2012
By Tim Glon
| 2012 All-OAC Football team (.pdf) |
ADA — Seven Ohio Northern student/athletes were named All-Ohio Athletic Conference in football for 2012 in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.
Seniors Tyler Joseph, Cody Kelly, Carter Paul and Justin Wilson and sophomore Steven Kenny were named Second Team All-OAC, while senior Kyle Smith and junior Sean Denson were named Honorable Mention All-Conference.
Joseph is now a two-time All-Conference honoree at right guard, earning Second Team honors in each of the past two seasons.
He has started the last 32 games in the past three years and is also an Academic All-OAC honoree.
Kelly is a three-time All-Conference award winner and is a four-year starter at nose tackle for the Polar Bears.
He was named First team All-OAC as a sophomore in 2010 and was a Second Team honoree in 2011 and 2012.
Kelly has started the last 41 games at nose tackle, making him just one of three Polar Bears to start at least 40 games in his career.
He finished his career ranked No. 10 all-time at ONU with 14.5 career sacks and had 175 tackles in his career.
Paul led the Polar Bears and was fourth in the OAC in rushing with 658 yards. He carried the ball 154 times and scored five touchdowns on the ground.
He also caught 10 passes for 142 yards and a score and finished the season with a team-best 800 all-purpose yards as a running back.
He wrapped up his career with 960 yards rushing and seven TDs on 207 rushing attempts. He also caught 13 passes for 164 yards and a score and had 1,124 career all-purpose yards.
Wilson led the Polar Bears in receiving in each of the past two seasons from his wide receiver position.
He finished the 2012 campaign with a league-best 58 receptions for 657 yards and a team-best eight touchdowns.
Wilson finished his career ranked sixth all-time at ONU with 98 receptions and is 14th with 1,044 career receiving yards.
He caught a pass in all 20 of his varsity games in his two seasons after transferring from Laney (Calif.) Community College in 2011.
Kenny led the Polar Bears and was second in the OAC in tackles with 82 despite only starting the last six games of the season at outside linebacker.
In two seasons, Kenny has 122 career tackles, 1.5 sacks, 5.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and a blocked kick.
Smith is now a three-time All-OAC honoree and has started 31 games at center in the last three seasons.
He was a Second Team All-Conference selection in 2010 and 2011.
Denson is a two-year starter at defensive end and is making his first appearance on the All-Conference squad.
This season, Denson led the Polar Bears in tackles for loss with 9.0 and in sacks with 6.0 despite being hampered with a foot injury the first half of the season.
He also led ONU in sacks as a freshman in 2012 and in TFL as a sophomore last season.
In his three seasons as a Polar Bear, Denson has 87 tackles, 25.5 TFL and 12.5 sacks.
The Polar Bears went 4-6 overall and finished sixth in the OAC with a 4-5 mark in 2012 under ninth-year head coach Dean Paul.