Wednesday, July 28, 2021
by Cody Bush, PFL Media Relations

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Pioneer Football League named 38 student-athletes to its Preseason All-Pioneer Football League Teams Wednesday, including 29 returning First Team All-PFL selections.

Returning players named to the league’s 2020-21 All-PFL Teams were placed automatically on the 2020 Preseason All-PFL team in order of head coaches voting. In addition, the 2021 preseason team includes student-athletes from the University of Dayton and Marist College who would have appeared on the 2020 Preseason All-PFL Team.

Preseason favorite and defending champion Davidson has five preseason selections: running back Dylan Sparks, fullback Coy Williams, offensive lineman Khalil Miller, defensive lineman Jonathan Hammond, and linebacker Jake Alexander. Sparks, Williams, and Miller led a Wildcats offensive unit that led all FCS programs in rushing yards (280.0 yards per game). Hammond returns after earning Freshman Defensive Player of the Year accolades after posting 9.5 tackles for loss and four sacks in his seven-game debut campaign.

San Diego, picked to finish second in Tuesday’s PFL Preseason Coaches’ Poll, saw seven of its student-athletes earn preseason recognition: wide receiver Michael Carner, tight end Derek Kline, offensive lineman DJ Wright, linebackers Kyle Bilchik and Kama Kamaka as well as defensive backs Michael Hawkins and Hunter Nichols. The Toreros five defensive selections paced a defensive that permitted a league-low 266.0 total yards per game and tallied a league-best 3.17 sacks per game over six outings.

Drake, picked third in the coaches poll, placed three on the preseason team while Dayton, picked fourth, returns five preseason picks. Morehead State, which was picked seventh, had six preseason selections, second-most among the league’s 11 members.

The upcoming 2019 season marks the 29th year for the Pioneer Football League – the nation’s only non-scholarship, football-only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference. The league will feature 11 teams, each playing an eight-game schedule to determine the league champion and recipient of the automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Championship.

The 2021 schedule gets underway Thursday, Sept. 2, when Drake hosts West Virginia Wesleyan, and the rest of the league gets underway Saturday, Sept. 4. The 2019 PFL race starts in Week 4 (Sept. 14) with a full five-game slate of league outings.