SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Southern Conference today named its Football Players of the Week for games played on September 16. Furman’s Renaldo Gray was tabbed the Offensive Player of the Week while Chattanooga’s Chris Johnson earned the Defensive Player of the Week honor. Appalachian State’s Gary Tharrington earned the Freshman of the Week award.

 

Gray, a junior from Greenwood, S.C., made his third career start on Saturday. The quarterback completed 20-of-26 passes for a career-high 310 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions to lead Furman to 521-yards of offense against North Carolina. Gray also had five rushes for six yards for a total of 316 total yards of offense and orchestrated six scoring drives of over 60 yards a piece. He had the most passing yards among the SoCon quarterbacks this weekend and tallied the most offensive yards of any league player. Gray’s passing yardage was the ninth best performance in Furman football history.

 

Other top performers include Appalachian State’s Armanti Edwards, Chattanooga’s Antonio Miller, Elon’s Wes Pope, Georgia Southern’s Lamar Lewis, Western Carolina’s Darius Fudge and Wofford’s Kevious Johnson.

 

UTC's Chris Johnson

Johnson, a junior from Chattanooga, Tenn., led the Chattanooga defensive effort on Saturday. The linebacker recorded a career-high 11 tackles against Western Kentucky, including 10 solo stops. Two of his hits were behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of five yards. The performance marked his first double-digit tackle game of the season and the third in his career.

 

Other top performers include Appalachian State’s Gary Tharrington, Elon’s Chad Nkang, Georgia Southern’s John Mohring, Western Carolina’s Shelton Gaffney and Wofford’s Justin Franklin.

 

Tharrington, a redshirt freshman from Middlesex, N.C., led the Appalachian State defense in a 41-0 shutout over Mars Hill, the Mountaineers’ first shutout in six years. The defensive end record 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss in the first half, and tallied five total tackles. His 3.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage accounted for a loss of 26 yards for Mars Hill. Tharrington leads the league with 6.5 tackles for loss, averaging 2.17 per game, and is

ASU's Gary Tharrington

second to teammate Marques Murrell with three sacks this season.

 

Other top freshmen include Elon’s Cameron McGlenn, Furman’s R.J. Webb, Georgia Southern’s Terrione Benefield and Western Carolina’s Kadeem Morgan.