Three Ole Miss Rebels garnered All-Southeastern Conference distinction from the league’s 14 head coaches for their 2016 performances, the SEC office announced Tuesday.
Senior tight end Evan Engram was named to the All-SEC first team, while senior quarterback Chad Kelly and junior kicker Gary Wunderlich made the second team.
Engram, from Powder Springs, Georgia, becomes the first player in Ole Miss football history to be named All-SEC four times. He was a second-team selection in 2013 and 2015 and first-team in 2014 and 2016.
Engram started all 11 games as a team captain before missing the Egg Bowl with a hamstring injury. The 2016 Conerly Trophy winner is the nation’s leading tight end with 5.9 catches per game and 84.2 receiving yards per game. He ranks top three among all SEC players of any position in both catches and yards per game. His eight touchdowns are tied for second nationally among tight ends. He set or tied Ole Miss records for most catches, yards and touchdowns in a season and a career by a tight end. In 2016, he racked up 65 catches for 926 yards and eight TDs.
Kelly started nine games before going down with a season-ending knee injury against Georgia Southern. The Buffalo, New York, native finished the season ranked first among SEC players with 343.3 total yards per game (seventh nationally) and 306.4 passing yards per outing (ninth in nation). A semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award and finalist for the Senior CLASS Award, he threw for 19 touchdowns with eight interceptions and rushed for another five TDs in nine games.
Kelly was also a second team All-SEC quarterback in 2015.
Engram and Kelly have both accepted invitations to the 2017 Reese’s Senior Bowl, which will be held Jan. 28 in Mobile, Alabama. Engram is expected to play, while Kelly will be unable to play as he recovers from knee surgery.
Wunderlich, from Memphis, Tennessee, receives all-conference honors for the first time in his college career. He leads the nation with a 95.7 field-goal percentage, connecting on 22 of 23 attempts and only missing a 55-yarder all season. He finished fifth nationally with 1.83 field goals per game and 27th in the country with 8.9 points scored per outing.
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Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
