Tuesday, December 16, 2014
by Cody Bush, PFL Media Relations

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Stetson sophomore defensive back Donald Payne was named to the Walter Camp 2014 Football Championship Subdivision All-America Team, Tuesday. The team was selected by the head coaches and sports information directors of the Football Championship Subdivision schools and certified by the accounting and auditing firm, Marcum LLP.

Payne, the PFL Defensive Player of the Year, recorded a PFL record and FCS regular-season best 174 tackles (14.5 per game) during a campaign that also saw him also set the PFL single-game tackle mark (30 versus Campbell, Nov. 1) and post two additional 20-tackle outings. A finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, Payne was not a one-dimensional player, recording 18.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, four interceptions, four pass breakups, two fumbles forced and two fumbles recovered during the campaign.

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 eleven men per side.  The Walter Camp Football Foundation – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients.