Bison Football Leads FCS in STATS Preseason All-Americans
North Dakota State led the nation with five players selected to the STATS FCS Preseason All-America team announced Thursday, July 9. Left tackle Joe Haeg and punter Ben LeCompte made the first team, fullback/tight end Andrew Bonnet and left guard Zack Johnson are on the second team, and long snapper James Fisher is on the third team. Haeg, a senior from Lake Shore, Minn., was a first team All-American and the Top Collegiate Offensive Lineman by the FCS Athletic Directors Association last year. He anchored a Bison front that ranked first in the FCS with only 3.38 tackles for loss allowed per game and rolled up a school record 6,916 yards of total offense. LeCompte, a senior from Barrington, Ill., was a second team All-American and FCS Punter of the Year by the College Football Performance Awards last year. He ranked second in the FCS with an average of 45.27 yards per punt and NDSU was ninth nationally with a net punting average of 38.37. Bonnet, a senior from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was a third team All-American last year. Bonnet was NDSU’s sixth leading receiver with 18 catches for 228 yards and two touchdowns, and he became a running threat in the playoffs averaging 7.2 yards per carry in four games. Johnson, a junior from Apple Valley, Minn., returns to the Bison lineup after a knee injury kept him out all of 2014. He was a second team all-conference pick and 15-game starter as a sophomore in 2013. Fisher, a sophomore from Bloomington, Minn., was NDSU’s long snapper in all 16 games last year for LeCompte and All-America kicker Adam Keller, who set school, conference and FCS records with 29 field goals made. The Missouri Valley Football Conference led the nation with 17 preseason All-Americans.
