2016 STATS FCS Preseason All-American Team

CONWAY - Coastal Carolina seniors De'Angelo Henderson, Devin Brown and Sam Ekwonike have all been named to the 2016 STATS FCS Preseason All-Americans.

This is first time three Chanticleers have been tabbed as preseason All-Americans with Henderson earning second team recognition while Brown and Ekwonike were selected to the third team.

Henderson, who finished 10th in the 2015 STATS Offensive Player of the Year voting, earned All-American honors last season after rushing for 1,345 yards and 16 touchdowns to rank among the NCAA FCS top 10 in both categories. He additionally scored a TD in all 14 games. Overall, he scored 19 touchdowns and ranked sixth in the nation by scoring 9.5 points per game. Henderson scored at least on TD in all 12 games and set the NCAA FCS record by scoring at least once in 26 consecutive games. Henderson is one TD from tying the all-time NCAA Division I record for consecutive games with a TD (Virginia Tech's Lee Suggs had 27). Henderson enters his final season as the CCU all-time leader in rushing attempts (538), yards (3,579) and yards per attempt (6.5), while needing just five TDs to own the school's all-time mark.

Brown, also a 2015 All-American, returned two kickoffs for touchdowns last season before teams started to kick away from the CCU all-time leader in kick returns for touchdowns with five. He finished the season seventh in the NCAA FCS with an average of 28.6 yards per return. In addition to his school record five kick returns for TDs, Brown is the CCU all-time leaders in kick returns (74), kick return yards (1,983) and kick return average (26.8).

Ekwonike is just the third Chanticleer offensive lineman to be named preseason All-American, joining Britt Leggett (2008) and Chad Hamilton (2014). Ekwonike, a first team all-conference pick in 2015, has started 26 straight contests at right guard and played a key role in the record-setting careers of All-Americans Alex Ross and Henderson. Ekwonike was team's top-graded offensive lineman (solo or tied) six times in 2015. He graded out at 90 percent or better eight times, only allowed one sack in 694 snaps and tallied 28 knock-down blocks. Ekwonike additionally helped Coastal rank among the FCS top 25 in seven categories.

Coastal Carolina will begin preseason camp on August 4 and opens the 2016 season at Lamar on Sept. 3. The Chanticleers will play the first of their eight home games on Sept. 10 when Florida A&M comes to Brooks Stadium.