WACO, Texas – The Southern Conference football student-athletes were named to the 2021 Spring AFCA?Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)?Coaches’ All-America Team announced Friday by the American Football Coaches Association.

VMI wide receiver Jakob Herres and ETSU linebacker Jared Folks earned first-team honors, while Chattanooga defensive lineman Devonnsha Maxwell earned a spot on the second team.

Herres has also earned first-team All-America honors from the FCS ADA, the Associated Press and Stats Perform. He was also a finalist for the Stats Perform Walter Payton Award and was named the offensive end Player of the Year for Division I colleges and universities in the commonwealth of Virginia by the Touchdown Club of Richmond. The Easton, Pennsylvania, native was named the SoCon Offensive Player of the Year both the league’s coaches and media and was also the SoCon Offensive Player of the Month for April. Herres led the Keydets in receiving during the season with 80 catches for 978 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 12.2 yards per grab and 122.2 yards per game, all of which led the Southern Conference. His total receiving yards and receiving yards per game lead the FCS.

Folks turned in a dominating 2021 spring campaign in which he earned the Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year award. Folks became the first Buccaneer to earn either defensive or offensive player of the year honors since Mario Hankerson in 1997. The Pennsylvania product finished the year with a team-high 50 tackles, including 23 solo tackles and 27 assisted. Folks finished fourth on the team in tackles for loss (4.0) and tallied 1.0 sack during the spring season. In addition, Folks earned a spot on the coaches’ All-SoCon first team and the media’s second team.

Maxwell, a 6-2, 295-pound native of Valdosta, Georgia, is a two-time first-team All-Southern Conference selection who has been among the league leaders in sacks each of the last two seasons.  He was a Freshman All-American in 2018 and a Sophomore All-American in 2019. Maxwell posted 5.0 sacks in four games played in the 2020-21 season. That mark is even more impressive number considering two of those contests were against triple-option Wofford and The Citadel.  He tied for team-high with 7.0 tackles-for-loss, while forcing a pair of fumbles.  Maxwell's 1.25 sacks-per-game and 1.75 TFLs per outing both led the SoCon this season. Maxwell is the first Moc to earn a spot on an AFCA team since current Denver Bronco Isaiah Mack made the first team in 2018.

The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. What makes these teams so special is that they are the only ones chosen exclusively by the men who know the players the best — the coaches themselves.

For the AFCA’s full release and teams, click here.