Pope chosen First Team All-America, Coltrain all-region by D3football.com
BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota – Two Defiance College football players are still racking up prestigious individual honors from outstanding 2021 seasons in the spring. On Monday afternoon, freshman defensive lineman Richard Pope IV (Daytona Beach, Fla. /Atlantic) was chosen First Team All-America and sophomore inside linebacker Thomas Coltrain (Leslie, Mich./Leslie) was named First Team All-Region as D3football.com announced its All-America and All-Region teams.
BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota – Two Defiance College football players are still racking up prestigious individual honors from outstanding 2021 seasons in the spring. On Monday afternoon, freshman defensive lineman Richard Pope IV (Daytona Beach, Fla. /Atlantic) was chosen First Team All-America and sophomore inside linebacker Thomas Coltrain (Leslie, Mich./Leslie) was named First Team All-Region as D3football.com announced its All-America and All-Region teams.
During Defiance's spring campaign, Pope and Coltrain anchored the Yellow Jackets' defense and both were First Team All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference selections. Also, each was picked as the HCAC Defensive Player of the Week once during the spring while Pope added a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week on one occasion.
In his first collegiate season, Pope led DC in total tackles for loss with 14 and sacks with seven. He also was second on the team in total tackles (41), solo tackles (27) and total tackles per game (5.9), and third in assisted tackles (14). Pope paced the conference in total tackles for loss, solo tackles for loss (13) and total tackles for loss per game (2.0) while placing second in total sacks, second in solo sacks (six), tied for second in sacks per game (1.0) and tied for second in assisted sacks (two). Nationally, he ranked tied for 15th in tackles for loss per game and tied for 21st in sacks per game.
Pope is one of two freshmen to be honored on either the first or second team. The only other freshman was Bluffton University's Montez Archer Jr., a first teamer and the HCAC's Defensive Player of the Year, Special Teams Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year this past spring.
Playing in only five of his squad's seven contests last season, Coltrain led Defiance in total tackles (49), solo tackles (28), assisted tackles (21) and total tackles per game (9.8) while having nine total tackles for loss, one sack, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble. In the conference, he ranked tied for second in total tackles for loss per game (1.8), third in total tackles per game, tied for fourth in solo tackles for loss (seven), tied for fifth in solo tackles, tied for fifth in total tackles for loss, tied for fifth in assisted tackles for loss (four), sixth in total tackles and tied for seventh in assisted tackles.
Because of the limited number of teams participating and playing games during the COVID-19 pandemic, the all-region team was assembled from all regions, encompassing the top players who were not on the All-America team.
In all, there were 53 players who received All-America recognition, including 27 on the first team. The all-region squad also consists of 53 student-athletes with 26 first teamers.
From the HCAC, there are five All-America honorees and another six players who were named all-region.
The last Yellow Jackets player to garner such accolades from D3football.com was defensive back Tony Sierra in 2013. Sierra was tabbed First Team All-Region and Third Team All-America.
In the spring, DC ended 2-5 overall for sixth place in the conference after being picked to finish eighth. Defiance is scheduled to open its traditional fall 2021 season on Thursday, Sept. 2 when traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to face Capital University in a non-conference contest.