CLEVELAND, OHIO – Old Dominion University football placed four student-athletes on the Phil Steele FBS All-Independent team. Taylor Heinicke, Larry Pinkard, Antonio Vaughan and Richie Staton all earned second-team accolades.
Heinicke, the 2012 Walter Payton Award winner, completed 340-of-486 passes for 4,022 yards and 33 touchdown passes. He also rushed 93 times for 348 yards and five touchdowns.
The junior signal-caller became the first ever Division I quarterback in Virginia to surpass 10,000 career passing yards and has passed for 11,483 passing yards in his career.
Pinkard led the Monarchs with 68 receptions for 1,020 yards and tied for a team-best with nine touchdowns. The receptions and yards are the second most in a single-season by an ODU receiver, second only to Nick Mayers 79 catches for 1,223 yards last season. For his career the Washington, D.C. native has 160 receptions for 2,238 yards and 25 receiving touchdowns.
Vaughan caught 60 passes for 843 yards and tied Pinkard with nine TD receptions. He tied his single-season career-best with 60 receptions and was just 44 yards shy of his career-high from a season ago in receiving yards. He is second in school history with 167 catches and third with 2,248 receiving yards.
Staton started all 12 games at middle linebacker and finished fourth on the team with 72 tackles and had a team-high 10.5 tackles for loss. He also added a team-high four sacks and recovered a fumble that he returned for 25 yards.