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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96: Greg Menard, Senior Defensive Lineman – North Dakota State
Here’s a player we can all get excited for — a redshirt senior and model student-athlete, North Dakota State’s Greg Menard will return to the field in 2018 for his final collegiate season. He has a monster season ahead of him.
Menard, a civil engineering major who’s a two-time All-American and three-time recipient of the MVFC Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award, was brilliant coming off the end of the line for the Bison in 2015 and 2016. Unfortunately, an ACL injury during training camp last summer forced him to miss the 2017 season. North Dakota State found a way to win a title without him, but everyone within 100 miles of Fargo would tell you they’d have slept a little easier if Menard had been in the fold last season.
During his junior year, Menard totaled 62 tackles (15.5 TFLs) and forced two fumbles, for which he garnered a third-team All-America nod from the Associated Press. (We had him pegged as a second-teamer.)
Menard should be on everyone’s preseason watch list for the Buck Buchanan this upcoming season, as we expect a big season to close his NDSU career. Backfields beware.
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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
