The 2014 season was a magical one for Southwestern College’s football team. The Jaguars won the conference title and went on to capture the American Bowl championship game to finish the season with a 10-1 overall record.
Otay Ranch High School alumnus Luis Perez served as SWC’s starting quarterback.
He completed 67.8 percent of his passes for 1,846 yards, 18 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns in a 46-44 win against San Bernardino Valley, and threw for 280 yards or more in three games, en route to earning First Team All Conference honors.
Following his two-year playing career with the Jaguars, Perez earned a full scholarship to Texas A&M Commerce.
Perez red-shirted at the Texas school during the 2015 season but earned significant playing time in 2016 and starting quarterback and team captain duties this season.
It’s added up to another magical pigskin ride for the former Mustang after Texas A&M Commerce defeated West Florida Saturday night, Dec. 16, in Kansas City to capture the NCAA Division II championship.
Perez threw for 323 yards and two touchdowns in the Lions’ 37-27 victory. It is the first NCAA Division II championship in school history.
But that’s just the icing on the cake. Prior to Saturday’s national championship game, Perez earned honors as the winner of this year’s Harlon Hill Trophy, emblematic of the NCAA Division II Player of the Year. The award is considered the Heisman Trophy of Division II college football.
Understandably, Perez was elated by the two major football events in his life.
“Words can’t even describe it,” Perez said. “This is the moment that you dream of. Winning the Harlon Hill, graduating and winning a national title in the same week – you can’t script it any better. Coach (Cody Carthel) told us we’re a team of destiny, and we believed it. We just ran away with it.”
The Hill Trophy is named for a former University of North Alabama player — the late Harlon Hill — who was a standout with the Lions from 1950-53 before going on to fame in the National Football League with the Chicago Bears.
Perez received 198 total points and held a commanding 63-point margin over Gannon University junior running back Marc Jones at 135 in voting for this year’s award.
The Hill Trophy will be presented to Perez on Jan. 5 at a ceremony on the campus of the University of North Alabama, Hill’s alma mater.
The Lions won a unanimous No. 1 ranking in the final AFCA Division II Coaches’ Poll.
Texas A&M Commerce rode Perez’s arm throughout the season. The former Jags signal-caller passed for 4,999 yards and 46 touchdowns in 15 games. He also rushed for one touchdown during the season to finish with an astronomical 162.87 quarterback rating.
He averaged 333.27 passing yards per game.
The 4,999 passing yards moved him into fourth on the NCAA Division II single season list.
Perez highlighted the nationally telecast game with big plays.
Texas A&M Commerce opened scoring in Saturday’s game when Perez hit teammate Shawn Hooks on a 50-yard touchdown strike. Perez later connected with teammate Marquis Wimberly on a 40-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to make the score 34-20.
The Lions never trailed in Saturday’s game, building a 20-7 lead at one points in the second quarter, but were challenged at one point in the third quarter when West Florida made the score 20-17.
Perez said the team simply took playing in the national championship game “play by play, one play at a time.”
“That’s how we approach our offense, taking it one play at a time,” he said. “You look up later and we have 28 points. It’s just (a matter of) taking it one play at a time.
“Our offensive line played fantastic. We told the o-line this week that the run game was going to be key. They answered the bell. We had over 100 yards rushing. The defense was playing solid. I was able to find open guys and give them the ball in space.”
Perez set the several NCAA tournament records during the Lions’ run to the national championship title: pass completions (144), pass attempts (211) and passing yards (1,570). He became the first quarterback to throw for at least 300 yards in a championship game since Northwest Missouri State’s Josh Lamberson in 2005.
He tied a Lone Star Conference record for 200-yard passing games in a season (14). He broke a Division II record for most passing yards in a single post-season game.
He ended his career at Texas A&M Commerce with 8,327 passing yards and 78 touchdowns.
Besides winning the Harlon Hill Trophy, Perez received accolades as a first team Division II All-American by the Associated Press.
Southwestern head coach Ed Carberry said he never had any doubt that Perez would find success at the next level.
“Just well deserved — a great leader/grinder,” Carberry said. “Everything he has done it has been through hard work. He spent three years with us; he didn’t play his first year and broke his leg his second year, then had to win the job as the No. 1 quarterback his sophomore year.
“We couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Carthel said he admired those same qualities in Perez.
“He’s the Harlon Hill winner for a reason,” Carthel explained. “I think everybody has seen that. He’s just a tremendous football player. He’s a tremendous talent. But more importantly, he’s a tremendous human being.
“He’s a great husband, and great student, teammate, leader and player. I could sit here for two hours and tell you interesting stories about him. That just speaks to his character and who he is. That’s why we signed him three years ago. We saw that in him.
“There were other quarterbacks out there with bigger arms or better athletes, but there was just something special about him. He’s going to be successful no matter what he does in life because of who he is. I’m very happy that he was on our team. He led us where we thought he could go, and that was a national championship.
“Now, I’ll probably cry myself to sleep tonight because he’s graduated and won’t be back next year. We’ll keep growing them up, and we’ve got a great team coming back. We’ll be ready to compete next year.”
Add Aztecs
San Diego State University will play Army in Saturday’s Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, Tex. The Aztecs take a 10-2 record into the game against the Black Knights (9-3).
The game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. Central Time and be telecast nationally on ESPN.
A pair of South County prep products have seen action on this year’s SDSU team: freshman offensive lineman Dominic Gudino and freshman receiver Collin Andrews, both graduates of Olympian High School.
Gudino appeared in seven games this season while Andrews logged time in seven games with one catch for 11 yards.
Gudino helped brace an offensive line that enabled SDSU to rush for 252.25 yards per game and 29 touchdowns this season while also providing protection for quarterback Chris Chapman, who passed for 1,848 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The bowl game will pit teams with running-oriented attacks. Army is averaging more than 355.83 rushing yards per game to lead the nation.
The marquee players to watch include SDSU senior running back Rashaad Penny and quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw of the Black Knights. Penny has rushed for 2,074 yards and 19 touchdowns this season. Bradshaw, who runs the option to near perfection, has gained 1,472 yards and scored 11 touchdowns.
Bradshaw is averaging 7.8 yards per carry while Penny is averaging 7.4 yards per carry.
Penny, named a FBS Consensus All-American on Dec. 14, needs 107 rushing yards to break the school’s single-season record held by Donnel Pumphrey, the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher, with 2,133 yards.
The Aztecs have been itching to take the field since Nov. 24 when they defeated visiting New Mexico, 35-10, in their final regular season game.
“It seems like it’s been a long time since we’ve played,” SDSU head coach Rocky Long said. “We’ve practiced quite a bit and developed some of the younger guys to this point. Now it’s all game planning so hopefully we can match up against their offense, which does a great job of running the ball.”
Long, the all-time winningest coach in Mountain West history, has guided San Diego State to a bowl game in each of his first seven seasons as head coach. He is looking forward to Saturday’s bowl game, as is the rest of the team.
“I think there are three great things about a bowl game,” Long said. “Number one is that it’s a reward for a good season. We’re going to go to Fort Worth and have a good time. The bowl people will do a great job of hosting us. We get to play one more game and that’s more important to the seniors than anyone else. It’s a little less stressful than the regular season is because it’s a bowl game.
“The most important thing for the future of the program is the extra practice that you get for the young guys. I don’t know how you would put that in order of importance, but for the future of the program the most important is developing the young guys.”
The game expects to go at a fast pace with both teams’ rush-oriented offenses. Long said Army will present a challenge with its option attack.
“They run a lot of speed option, which means the quarterback runs down the line of scrimmage and tries to carry the ball whenever there is an opening,” the SDSU coach explained. “If there isn’t an opening, then he will pitch it. Then they do a lot of things to make him the tailback with an extra blocker. They’ll run zone plays with the lead blocker, they’ll run power plays with two extra blockers. He’s the ball carrier.
“It’s not a typical triple-option team and they’re getting an extra blocker by making him the ball carrier. It’s a very difficult scheme to stop with any consistency. All you have to do is look at how many punts they’ve had for the entire season. Most people have had that many punts for the first third of the season. They haven’t punted the ball very much because they keep it away from you forever. If it’s fourth-and-2 or less, they are going for it. If you hear their coaches talk, they start a series first-and-8. Everyone else starts their series first-and-10. They start first-and-8.”
The Aztecs had 10 players named to the all-Mountain West team. Of those 10, only four are seniors. SDSU played three freshmen (offensive linemen?Keith Ismael and Tyler Roemer and defensive back Tariq Thompson) on the team.
Seventeen seniors will play their final game for the Aztecs in Saturday’s bowl game.
Holiday Bowl
Michigan State (No. 16) and Washington State (No. 18) will battle locally in next Thursday’s 40th annual San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl game at SDCCU Satadium. Kick-off for the Dec. 28 game is 6 p.m.
Washington State has seven San Diego County players on its roster: wide receiver Dezmon Patmon and linebacker Dominick Silvels, both from Patrick Henry High School; linebackers Jahad Woods and Mason Vinyward, both from Helix High School; offensive lineman Cedric Gigge-Duren from Oceanside High School; wide receiver C.J. Dimry from La Costa Canyon High School; and cornerback Darrien Moulton from Temecula Chaparral.
Add NFL
Former Southwestern College player Kevin Bowen signed as a college free agent with the Washington Redskins in May 2016. He is currently on the team’s injured reserve list. A 6-foot-9, 346-pound tackle, Bowen attended East Central Oklahoma following his two-year stint with the Jaguars.
