The countdown to the 2018 college football season is on. Four FCS teams are in action Aug. 25 as Duquesne takes on UMass, Prairie View faces Rice and North Carolina A&T and Jacksonville State square off in ESPN’s FCS Kickoff.
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HERO Sports is going to count down each day by highlighting the best player in FCS football who wears the jersey number of the number of days to kickoff. You can find the running list of top players here.
*Note: Jersey numbers are from the 2017 season.
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54: Vernon Moland, senior defensive lineman – Alabama A&M
There's a reason that A&M ranked as a top-25 team in tackles for loss during the 2017 season. Redshirt junior Vernon Moland got very comfortable behind enemy lines, racking up yardage losses for the Bulldogs. As a result, AAMU got over seven TFL's per contest, and Moland personally ranked 79th in the country with 1.05 tackles per game.
Moland, who started as the left end in AAMU's base scheme featuring three down linemen, eventually set the SWAC's high water mark for single-game TFLs in 2017. His five solo tackles in a late-season game against Jackson State led all conference players. Unsurprisingly, he was named to the conference's First-Team defense just a few weeks later.
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FCS Kickoff Countdown: The Best Player in FCS Who Wears Each Number, 1-99
CFB Countdown: The Best Player in FBS Football, 1-99