HAMILTON, N.Y. (12/14/05) – Senior linebacker Jared Nepa (Carbondale, Pa.) was named to the AFCA All-American Team, the American Football Coaches Association announced today. The association has selected an All-American team every year since 1945. Nepa is the eighth Colgate player to achieve AFCA All-American status.
This season, Nepa served as a co-captain of Colgate’s Patriot League championship team. He led the team with 105 tackles and led the Patriot League with five interceptions. Nepa returned two of those five interceptions for touchdowns, which tied the single-season Colgate record. The senior linebacker was recently named to the First Team All-Patriot League, and was honored as the 2005 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year.
The AFCA All-American team is unique because it only selects three linebackers from all of 1-AA football, the fewest of any All-American team. It is also the only All-American team which is selected solely by coaches. “To have been named an All-American by the coaches, people who know the ins and outs of the game, that’s a great feeling,” said Nepa. “I’m definitely surprised. I worked so hard for four years, and to be recognized like this, it’s incredible.”
Colgate head coach Dick Biddle offered high praise for Nepa, “The AFCA All-American team is the Cadillac of All-American teams. It is quite an honor for Jared, and one that he deserves very much. I have coached college football for 33 years, and I have never been associated with a more impressive linebacker. He dominated games, which is something that you usually see only on offense.”
Nepa’s story is remarkable because he had never played linebacker before his freshman year at Colgate. At Carbondale Area High School, Nepa played quarterback and free safety. He was recruited by Colgate head coach Dick Biddle as a safety. According to Nepa, “I moved to linebacker my freshman year because Coaches Biddle and [linebackers coach Bob] Fraser saw something in me.”
Both coaches were proven right. Given their respective track records, that comes as no surprise. Biddle was an All-American linebacker at Duke in 1970. He has never had a losing season in 10 years leading the Raiders, and has won five Patriot League championships. Fraser has coached college football for the past 19 years, and has coached three of the past four Patriot League Defensive Players of the Year at Colgate. Nepa thanked his coaches for their support, “The coaching staff has been outstanding in my time here. Coach Biddle knows what you’re going through as a player. He’s been there. Coach Fraser was a huge part of my development as a player. He constantly taught me, and took a big chance on me.”
Biddle will remember Jared Nepa as a great linebacker, but also as far more than that. “He practiced hard every day, never missed a practice,” the coach said. “And he practiced the way he played – hard. I think that the other players really fed off of that. He didn’t talk a lot, but he set a great example.”
