The Missouri Valley Football Conference has announced its 2024 all-league teams.  League tri-champs North Dakota State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State highlight the teams with 48 total selections among them.  Runner-up finishers Illinois State (10) and Missouri State (13) also had 10 or more picks.  The teams were selected by a panel of head coaches, sports information directors, and media.   

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:  QB Cam Miller, North Dakota State
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:  DL Mi’Quise Grace, South Dakota
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR & FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR:  RB CharMar Brown, North Dakota State
‘BRUCE CRADDOCK’ COACH OF THE YEAR:  Bob Nielson, South Dakota

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OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
QB Cam Miller, North Dakota State | 6-1, 212, Sr., Solon, Iowa (Solon HS)
Leads the MVFC in completion percentage (.742) and pass efficiency (179.9) and ranks second with 2,340 passing yards and 23 touchdowns...Went 190-for-256 passing with only one interception...Added 370 yards rushing and seven touchdowns...Fourth in the MVFC averaging 225.8 total offense yards per game...Two-time MVFC Offensive Player of the Week, including the season opener at Colorado where he had 358 yards of total offense and three TDs...Four-year starter with a 41-11 record as starting quarterback...NDSU career record sixteen 200-yard passing games, including five this year...School-record 8,810 career passing yards and 324 consecutive pass attempts without interception...MVFC quarterback record 43 career rushing touchdowns... 2023 Stats Perform All-America second team...2023 All-MVFC second team.  He's the fourth Bison (all QBs) to win MVFC Offensive Player of the Year (2013, Brock Jensen; 2018, Easton Stick; 2019, Trey Lance).
 

Offensive Player of the Year
Cam Miller	NDSU	148
Charles Pierre Jr.	South Dakota	80
Jacob Clark	Missouri State	69
Travis Theis	South Dakota	33
Bo Belquist	North Dakota	31

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
DL Mi’Quise Grace, South Dakota | 6-4, 255, R-So., Cincinnati, Ohio (Princeton HS)
First-year starter on the Coyote D-line … league leader in both tackles for loss (17.0) and sacks (9.5), despite playing one less game than most of MVFC teams … had a career-best 4.0 TFLs and 2.5 sacks vs Indiana State (Nov. 9) … notched a pair of 2+ sack games and had at least one in six games this season … had 1.5+ TFLs in seven games, plus recording 11.5 in the final give games … one-time Defensive Player of the Week (Nov. 11).  South Dakota is back in the FCS Division I Football Championship and received its second-straight top-4 seed (No. 4 this year).  The Yotes earned their first share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference title.  Grace is the second-straight Yote to win the league's top defensive honor and third for USD in its MVFC history (2013 - LB Tyler Starr; 2023 - LB Brock Mogensen).
 

Defensive Player of the Year
Mi'Quise Grace	South Dakota	104
Eli Mostaert	NDSU	89
Tye Niekamp	Illinois State	68
Caleb Francl	SDSU	57

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR & FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
RB CharMar Brown, North Dakota State | 5-11, 214, RFr., Omaha, Neb. (Creighton Prep HS) 
Four-time MVFC Newcomer of the Week...Leads all FCS freshmen with 965 rushing yards, fifth most overall in the MVFC...Four 100-yard rushing games including a season-high 126 against Towson...Tied for third in the conference with 14 rushing TDs...Only 13 yards lost on 189 attempts, the second most carries in the league.  Brown is the sixth MVFC player to earn both Newcomer and Freshman of the Year honors in the same season and the third NDSU player to do so (2012 QB Sawyer Kollmorgen, UNI; 2013    RB Martin Ruiz, YSU; 2017    LB Jabril Cox, NDSU; 2019 QB Trey Lance, NDSU; 20-21 QB Mark Gronowski, SDSU).
 

Newcomer of the Year
CharMar Brown	NDSU	81
Elijah Owens	Indiana State	36
Xavier Loyd	Illinois State	26

 

Freshman of the Year
CharMar Brown	NDSU	94
Elijah Owens	Indiana State	68
Sawyer Seidl	North Dakota	18

‘BRUCE CRADDOCK’ COACH OF THE YEAR
Bob Nielson, South Dakota
For the second-straight Nielson has earned the league's top coaching honor.  South Dakota is back in the FCS Division I Football Championship and received its second-straight top-4 seed (No. 4 this year).  The Yotes earned their first share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference title after scoring back-to-back historic wins to close the regular season.  On Nov. 16, South Dakota snapped a the 15-game losing streak in Grand Forks (at North Dakota) winning there for the first time since 1985, and on Nov. 23, USD rallied in the closing minutes to beat top-ranked North Dakota State, 29-28.  It marked USD's second win against an FCS No. 1 team.  A three-time national coach of the year (1998--Wisconsin-Eau Claire; 2008 & 2010--Minnesota Duluth), Nielson is the 9th MVFC coach to win MVFC "Bruce Craddock" Coach of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons.  Last year, he became the 14th coach to win MVFC Coach of the Year multiple times. He's also the first to earn Coach of the Year at two different league schools (2015--WIU, 2023--USD, 2024-USD).
 

Coach of the Year
Bob Nielson	South Dakota	138
Tim Polasek	NDSU	99
Jimmy Rogers	SDSU	59
Brock Spack	Illinois State	51

 

FIRST TEAM

QB -- Cam Miller, North Dakota State

QB -- Jacob Clark, Missouri State

RB -- Amar Johnson, South Dakota State

RB -- Charles Pierre Jr., South Dakota

FB -- Travis Theis, South Dakota

OL -- Evan Beerntsen, South Dakota State

OL -- Joey Lombard, South Dakota

OL -- Gus Miller, South Dakota State

OL -- Mason Miller, North Dakota State

OL -- Grey Zabel, North Dakota State

TE -- JJ Galbreath, South Dakota

WR -- Bo Belquist, North Dakota

WR -- Bryce Lance, North Dakota State

WR -- Max Tomczak, Youngstown State

DL -- Jarod DePriest, South Dakota State

DL -- Nick Gaes, South Dakota

DL -- Mi'Quise Grace, South Dakota

DL -- Eli Mostaert, North Dakota State

LB -- Adam Bock, South Dakota State

LB -- Geoffrey Brown, Indiana State

LB -- Caleb Francl, South Dakota State

LB -- Logan Kopp, North Dakota State

LB -- Tye Niekamp, Illinois State

DB -- Dalys Beanum, South Dakota State

DB -- Devin Hembry, North Dakota

DB -- Keondre Jackson, Illinois State

DB -- Tucker Large, South Dakota State

DB -- Dennis Shorter, South Dakota

PK -- James London, Murray State

P -- Grant Burkett, Missouri State

RS -- Sergio Morancy, Northern Iowa

DS -- Caden Bolz, Missouri State

AP -- Beau Brungard, Youngstown State

AP -- Angel Johnson, South Dakota State

SECOND TEAM

QB -- Mark Gronowski, South Dakota State

RB -- CharMar Brown, North Dakota State

RB -- Jacardia Wright, Missouri State

FB -- Jaden Norby, North Dakota

OL -- Joe Cotton, South Dakota

OL -- Bryce Henderson, South Dakota

OL -- Cash Hudson, Missouri State

OL -- Jared Penning, Northern Iowa

OL -- Jaison Williams, Youngstown State

TE -- Lance Mason, Missouri State

WR -- Daniel Sobkowicz, Illinois State

WR -- Griffin Wilde, South Dakota State

WR -- Hunter Wood, Missouri State

DL -- Jake Anderson, Illinois State

DL -- Blake Holden, South Dakota

DL -- Joey Shew, Indiana State

DL -- Darion Smith, Missouri State

LB -- Ben Bogle, Southern Illinois

LB -- Gary Bryant III, South Dakota

LB -- Tahj Chambers, Missouri State

DB -- Mark Cannon Jr., Illinois State

DB -- Colby Huerter, South Dakota State

DB -- Colby Humphrey, South Dakota State

DB -- Mike Reid, South Dakota

DB -- Ubayd Steed, Southern Illinois

PK -- Griffin Crosa, North Dakota State

P -- Brendon Kilpatrick, Youngstown State

RS -- Jackson Williams, North Dakota State

DS -- Sam Merryman, Youngstown State

AP -- Jacardia Wright, Missouri State