HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Coming off of an impressive 7-3 campaign, Alabama A&M football has landed four players on the BOXTOROW All-American Team as announced by that organization on Monday, December 13.
Building upon the six honors from the spring season, the Bulldogs quartet from this fall is headlined by graduate quarterback
Aqeel Glass (St. Louis, Mo.), junior wide receivers
Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim (Miramar, Fla.) and
Odieu Hilaire (Belle Glade, Fla.) on the First-Team with senior running back
Gary Quarles (Cottondale, Ala.) landing a spot on the All-American Honorable Mention Team.
Glass, Ibrahim and Quarles repeat on their respective teams from the Spring with A&M's 6-5 signal caller garnering the most votes of any player for Fall 2021.
FIRST-TEAM
AQEEL GLASS, QUARTERBACK
One of the most prolific quarterbacks in the history of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Glass produced a fitting final campaign as he recorded 3,568 passing yards, 36 touchdowns and 356.8 yards per game and 160.8 passing efficiency in 10 games.
That performance capped a career that featured more than 12,000 passing yards and 109 passing touchdowns, five games of at least 400 air yards this fall, two of which reset the program's NCAA Division I Era record with 446 yards and four touchdowns at Grambling (10/2) and 462 yards with five scores at Texas Southern (11/13). On top of that, he added two outings of more than 300 yards passing with four TDs in each.
You don't have a career like that without landing on a number of high-profile watch lists, a group that includes the 2022 Reese's Senior Bowl, the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) and Deacon Jones Award as the nation's Black College Football Player of the Year. The latter he won this past spring and finished ninth among 25 finalists for the Walter Payton Award representing the top player at the FCS level and was the first selection to the Inaugural HBCU Legacy Bowl.
On top of those honors, the National Football League (NFL) prospect was named Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Offensive Player of the Year for a second straight season, marking just the third time that has happened in the past 23 years, All-SWAC First-Team and claimed three SWAC Offensive Player of the Week honors (Sept. 6, Nov. 15, Nov. 22). He paired one of those with being named BOXTOROW National Player of the Week following a 42-41 opening week victory over South Carolina State (Sept. 4).
Nationally, he ranks in the Top-10 of nine different categories, including fourth in points responsible for per game (22.6), fifth in passing yards per game and yards per attempt (8.62), sixth in passing touchdowns (36), passing yards and passing efficiency, seventh in total points responsible for (226) and total offense (348.3) and eighth in completions per game (25.9). For good measure he is 12
th in passing yards per completion (13.78).
ABDUL-FATAI IBRAHIM, WIDE RECEIVER
Now a seven-time All-American between preseason and postseason honors, Ibrahim is just one of 16 individuals to record at least 1,000 yards receiving at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level in Fall 2021. However, he is only one of two to do so in just 10 games and the only one to accomplish the feat in the SWAC.
His 1,008 yards in 10 games rank 15
th in the country and led the SWAC by nearly 100 over teammate
Odieu Hilaire while his average of 100.8 per game topped the conference and is fifth in the nation. At 6.7 catches per game he trailed only Hilaire (7.1) in the league and ranks eighth in the country in that category.
Ibrahim also finished the season with 67 receptions and eight touchdowns, good for second and a tie for eighth in the league, respectively.
The Fall 2021 campaign marked his second career 1,000-yard season following 1,004 as a tryout, walk-on freshman in 2019 and featured numerous standout performances. Those included 177 on eight snares against Tuskegee (9/25), 133 with a career-best 10 catches the following week at Grambling (10/2) and 104 with a TD against Alabama State (10/30) in the Magic City Classic.
He saved his best performances for the final two games of the campaign, however, snagging eight balls for 176 yards and a pair of scores - including one from 81 yards out - at Texas Southern (11/13) and 115 yards on seven grabs, two of which he would take to the house, against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (11/20) in the season finale.
Already named an All-SWAC Preseason First-Team selection and BOXTOROW Preseason All-American, Ibrahim earned All-SWAC First-Team honors this year and added another impressive honor during the season. The latter would be one which only three other Bulldogs have ever achieved, that being CoSIDA Academic All-District, recognizing him as one of the top receivers on the field and in the classroom out of District 4.
District 4 includes FCS and Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, pitting him against some of the toughest competition for this honor. As a result, he is currently eligible for Academic All-America, which will be announced on Wednesday, December 15.
ODIEU HILAIRE, WIDE RECEIVER
It takes a heck of an effort to be able to sweep both All-American wide receiver spots but that is exactly what Alabama A&M managed with two of the top receiving threats in the country.
The second one of those on this year's team was
Odieu Hilaire, who led the SWAC in receptions (71) and catches per game (7.1) and finished second in yards per game (91.8) and total yards (918), both of the latter to his teammate Ibrahim.
Over the course of 10 games, the speedy wideout finished fifth in catches per game at the FCS level (7.1) and was 14
th in receiving yards per game (91.8) and 21
st in total receiving yards. With the latter, he was one of just three individuals to land in the top 21 while playing just 10 games and, for good measure, his nine receiving touchdowns are 19
th in the nation and tied for fourth in the league.
Individually, Hilaire recorded at least six catches in seven games, highlighted by a career-best 12 for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns at Texas Southern (11/13). He also hauled in 10 catches for a then career-high 161 yards and a score at Grambling (10/2) and 10 the following week for 117 yards and a TD against Jackson State (10/9).
He would cap the 2021 season with eight catches for a career-best 162 yards, 62 of which came on a touchdown, against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (11/20) at Louis Crews Stadium.
HONORABLE MENTION
GARY QUARLES, RUNNING BACK
The thunder to all that lightning would be the 5-6
Gary Quarles, who delivered an impressive 2021 campaign while being active in all phases of the offense.
The SWAC's leader in rushing touchdowns (10) and yards per game (95.5), Quarles hardly left the field as he picked up blockers or caught the ball out of the backfield when not making a defender miss while toting the rock 205 times.
On the season he racked up 955 total yards on the ground behind those 205 carries, good for second in the league, and added 21 catches for 224 yards. Altogether, he accounted for 1,179 all-purpose yards and surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark five times on the season.
Included among the latter would be the first three games of the campaign with 129 yards and a touchdown against South Carolina State (9/4), 101 and a score at Bethune-Cookman (9/16) in a driving rainstorm and a career-high 164 yards and a pair of TDs against Tuskegee (9/25) in Mobile, Alabama.
Quarles would decimate rival Alabama State (10/30) in the Magic City Classic with 126 yards in a 42-28 victory and produced a whopping 162 on a career-best 35 carries at Texas Southern (11/13). He would also score a pair of touchdowns in each game while snagging four balls for a personal best 80 yards in the latter. That would bring his total to 242 scrimmage yards in the 52-49 victory at the Tigers.
The diminutive tailback accomplished all of that after being named an All-SWAC Preseason Second-Team selection and earned the league's Offensive Player of the Week on September 6 as a result of his performance at Bethune-Cookman. Following the season, he was also named an All-SWAC First-Team selection.
Alabama A&M had one of the top offenses in the country and it did not go unnoticed in these selections as the Bulldogs earned the most offensive honorees among the seven teams with First-Team selections.
FALL 2021 BOXTOROW ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS
OFFENSE
QB: Aqeel Glass, Alabama A&M
RB: Bishop Bonnett, Florida A&M
RB: Calil Wilkins, Bowie State
OL: Keenan Forbes, Florida A&M
OL: Quindonte Bobo, Bowie State
OL: Johnathan Bishop, Southern
OL: Robert Lacey, Tennessee State
OL: Matthew Derks, Delaware State
TE: Kemari Averett, Bethune-Cookman
WR: Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim, Alabama A&M
WR: Odieu Hilaire, Alabama A&M
DEFENSE
DL: James Houston, Jackson State, Sr.
DL: Jason Dumas, Prairie View A&M, Sr.
DL: Antwan Owens, Jackson State, Sr.
DL: Jonathan Ross, Bowie State
LB: Isaiah Land, Florida A&M
LB: Aubrey Miller, Jr., Jackson State
LB: Payton Lunsford, West Virginia State
DB: Markquese Bell, Florida A&M
DB: Decobie Durant, South Carolina State
DB: BJ Bohler, Florida A&M
DB: Drake Cheatum, Prairie View A&M
DB: Joshua Williams, Fayetteville State
SPECIALISTS
P: Matt Noll, Delaware State
PK: Jose Romo-Martinez, Florida A&M
PR: Brandon Codrington, North Carolina Central
KR: Isaiah Bolden, Jackson State
RS: Imeek Watkins, Chowan
HONORABLE MENTION
QB: Juwan Carter, Norfolk State
RB: Brett Sylve, Kentucky State;
Gary Quarles, Alabama A&M
OL: Colby Byrd, Norfolk State; Mark Evans II, Arkansas-Pine Bluff; Miquail Harvey, Albany State; David Keck, Chowan; Jalen Powell, Norfolk State; Justin Redd, Norfolk State
TE: Anthony Williams, Norfolk State
WR: Trey Gross, Delaware State; Charles Hall, Virginia Union
DL: De'Shaan Dixon, Norfolk State; Jamal Holloway, Central State; Jeblonski Green, South Carolina State; Keyshawn James, Fayetteville State
LB: BJ Davis, South Carolina State; Chad Gilchrist, South Carolina State; Devon Hunt, Shaw; Untareo Johnson, Bethune-Cookman
DB: Omari Hill-Robinson, Bethune-Cookman; Brandon Barnes-Brown, Fayetteville State; Armani Maddox, Morehouse
P: Josh Sanchez, Arkansas-Pine Bluff; Jonatan Ward, Kentucky State
K: Adrian Olivo, North Carolina Central
RS: Imeek Watkins, Chowan
