STEPHENVILLE — More All-American lists were announced Thursday and Friday, and Tarleton Football’s Kayvon Britten and Darius Cooper added five more awards combined to bring the duo’s total to nine.
Britten and Cooper were each named to the 2024 FCS Football Central All-American First Team, along with the Phil Steele FCS 2024 All American First Team. Britten was also named to the 2024 AFCA FCS Coaches All-America Second Team on Friday.
With the five additional awards, this makes the total nine, as Britten and Cooper were each named to the Associated Press FCS All-America First Team and 2024 Stats Perform FCS All-America First Team earlier this week.
The 2024 FCS Football Central All-American Teams featured 119 players nationally. There were 15 positions on offense, including two running back spots and three at wide receiver. Britten joined Southern Utah’s Targhee Lambson as the First Team All-American running backs, and Cooper was flanked by Eastern Washington’s Efton Chism III and UIW’s Jalen Walthall at First Team All-American WR.
Phil Steele’s FCS 2024 All American Teams comprised of four different teams, with just 12 positions on the offensive side. Britten and Cooper were among the 12 on the First Team, joined by the same First Team members as previously mentioned.
Britten was Second Team 2024 AFCA FCS Coaches All-America, joined by South Dakota’s Travis Theis at running back. On the First Team were Lambson and UC Davis’ Lan Larison.
Britten made the United Athletic Conference First Team All-Conference on Friday after shattering most of Tarleton State’s program rushing records in 2024. Britten finished as the leading rusher across the FCS and second across all of NCAA Division I football. Across 14 games, Britten rushed for 1,982 yards and 18 touchdowns on 340 carries, averaging 5.8 yards per rush and 141.6 yards per game. He also had a touchdown and 165 yards on 16 receptions, finishing with 2,147 yards from scrimmage and 19 total touchdowns. Britten set a new single-season program rushing record, surpassing Derrick Ross’ mark that had stood for 20 years (1,560 in 2004). He rushed for over 100 yards in 11 different games, and with 15 in his Tarleton State career, he had the most ever by a Texan. Britten is one of three players in program history with multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Britten finished eighth in the voting for the Walter Payton Award (national offensive player of the year award). He was one of 35 finalists for the 2024 Walter Payton Award, one of 15 running backs among the finalists, with an additional 16 quarterbacks, three wide receivers and one offensive lineman. Britten was named the FCS Offensive National Player of the Week and UAC Offensive Player of the Week against North Alabama on Sept. 21 after 273 rushing yards and four touchdowns, averaging 13.0 yards per carry. Britten set a new program record for single-game rushing yards, surpassing Ross’ 269 yards rushing vs. Western New Mexico on Sept. 10, 2005. Britten’s 273 rushing yards are the most in a single-game across FCS and second most across all of NCAA Division I this season, with the FBS leader at 278 (Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter). Britten’s four rushing touchdowns are the tied-third most in a game at the FCS level this season. Britten tied the program record in scoring with his four touchdowns, joining six others. Before Britten, the most recent to score four times in a game was Xavier Turner on Oct. 20, 2018. In the second quarter at North Alabama, Britten scored his first touchdown on a 96-yard run, which marked the longest run in program history. It’s the third longest rushing play across D1 this year, a yard short of UIW’s Dekalon Taylor (Sept. 21) and Saint Francis’ DeMarcus McElroy (Sept. 14). On Oct. 5 at Southern Utah, Britten crossed the 1,000-yard mark in the sixth game of the year. Only five FCS players have reached 1,000 yards in fewer games; South Dakota State’s Zach Zenner in 2012, Portland State’s Charles Dunn in 2000, Sacramento State’s Charles Roberts in 1999, Siena’s Reggie Greene in 1997, and Butler’s Arnold Mickens in 1994.
Cooper, meanwhile, earned his second career First Team All-Conference award after finishing as the leading receiver across all of NCAA Division I football, both FBS and FCS. Cooper had 1,450 yards and 14 touchdowns on 76 receptions, posting the most receiving yards in D1 college football, the tied-second most receiving TD’s in FCS (tied-third most across both FBS and FCS). Conference-wise, Cooper was first in receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, receiving yards per game (103.6), and was tied-first in receptions. He was second in average yards per catch (19.1). Cooper had seven 100-yard games on the year, with six coming over the last seven games of the season. He posted four multi-TD games, and had nine games with at least five receptions. Cooper set a new program playoff record in single-game receiving yards with 190 in Tarleton’s first playoff game on Nov. 30, surpassing Jahmeel Hobson’s 188 vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville on Nov. 14, 2009. He set a new program record in career receiving yards at 3,185, surpassing Clifton Rhodes III’s 2,757 from 2011-14. He became the second player in program history to have multiple seasons with 1,000 receiving yards (Devin Guinn, 2007 and 2009), falling just 12 yards shy of the single-season receiving yard record of 1,462 set by Zimari Manning in 2019. Cooper set a new program record for 100-yard receiving games in a Texan player’s career at 14, surpassing Manning’s 12 in 2018-19. At 29 career receiving touchdowns, Cooper is second, only behind Manning (2018-19) at 34.
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