Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward MageeNews.com a small commission – at no extra cost to you.
CLINTON, Miss. — Mississippi College senior wide receiver Marcel Newson has been named to the 2016 Don Hansen NCAA Division II All-Super Region Two Team, it was announced on Wednesday (Jan. 25).
The latest honor for Newson adds to an already impressive list of accolades following the 2016 campaign. He was named an American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Second Team All-American, a D2CCA All-Super Region 2 selection, a finalist for the C Spire Conerly Trophy (Mississippi’s top four-year college football player), a Harlon Hill Trophy candidate (Division II Player of the Year) and a First Team All-Gulf South Conference selection as a wide receiver and return specialist.
Newson became MC’s first Division II All-American since Kelly Ray in 1993 and the first AFCA All-American since Renard Ellis was named to the Division III team in 2009.
Over his two years as a Choctaws, Marcel caught 97 passes for 1,509 yards and 13 touchdowns, while adding two rushing touchdown, two punt return touchdowns and a kickoff return for a score to record 18 touchdowns over 19 games played.
In 2016, Newson led the GSC with 180.6 all-purpose yards per game and 94.8 receiving yards per game. His all-purpose yards mark was good enough to finish 5th nationally, while he set single-season school records for receptions per game (6.33) and all-purpose yards per game.
Marcel had four games with over 100 receiving yards in 2016, catching touchdown passes in five consecutive contests. He also tallied a 93-yard kickoff return (at Shorter), an 83-yard catch (at Delta State), a 75-yard rush (vs. Cumberland) and a 73-yard punt return (vs. Valdosta State) all for scores to make him the only player in Division II to score 70+ yard touchdowns in four different ways.
The Don Hansen team carries out the legacy of long-time small college football advocate Don Hansen, who passed away at age 75 on Aug. 29, 2010. Hansen, from Brookfield, Ill., started and published Don Hansen’s National Weekly Football Gazette for three decades, selecting NCAA Division II All-America teams for the first time in 1988. Don Hansen’s Football Gazette began selection Division II All-Region squads in 2003.
The first-team and second-team All-Region selections advance to a national ballot from which the 2016 Don Hansen NCAA Division II All-America team will be named in February.
