IRVING, Texas – Old Dominion University freshman running back Ray Lawry was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year, the conference office announced on Wednesday.
Lawry becomes the first football Monarch to win a conference rookie of the year honor. In 2011, Taylor Heinicke was named the College Football Performance Awards Freshman of the Year, but was just edged out for CAA Freshman of the Year by Terrance West, who now plays for the Cleveland Browns.
Lawry led the Monarchs with 134 carries for 947 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also had 27 receptions for 155 yards.
A native of Woolwich, N.J., Lawry had five 100-yard rushing games on the year, including a career-best 216 yards and a touchdown in the season-ending 31-28 victory at FAU. He tied Thomas DeMarco’s school record with four rushing touchdowns at Western Kentucky while also scoring three times at NC State and had two scores apiece against UTEP and FIU, including the game-tying touchdown in the win over FIU.
Despite starting just the last four games of the season, Lawry led all freshman running backs with 7.1 yards per carry and was tied for third with Oregon’s Royce Freeman with 16 rushing touchdowns and finished ninth with his 947 rushing yards.
Yesterday, Lawry was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman team along with Darius Garcia, Bunmi Rotimi, Christian Byrum and Jarrett Cervi.