COURTESY PRESS RELEASE CLEMSON ATHLETICS
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced today that Clemson running back Travis Etienne has been named the 2019 ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year. In addition, the conference announced that linebacker Isaiah Simmons has been selected as ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
Etienne has now won consecutive ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year honors, the first player to do so since Lamar Jackson in 2016-17. He is the first running back to repeat as ACC Player of the Year since North Carolina’s Mike Voight in 1975-76. He is the first Clemson player at any position to repeat since Steve Fuller in 1977-78 and the first Clemson running back to accomplish the feat since the award’s inception.
Simmons’ selection gives Clemson ACC Defensive Player of the Year winners in each of the last two seasons, joining defensive end Clelin Ferrell’s selection in 2018. It marks the first time since the ACC began awarding Defensive Player of the Year in 1993 that Clemson has won the award in back-to-back years. Simmons joins Ferrell (2018), Vic Beasley (2014), DaQuan Bowers (2010), Gaines Adams (2006), Leroy Hill (2004) and Keith Adams (1999) as the only Clemson players to earn the honor all-time.
This marks the second straight year in which Clemson has captured Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. It marks the fifth time that one team has swept all three awards since the inception of the offensive and defensive honors in 1993, but it represents the first time a program has accomplished a sweep of the three awards in consecutive years.
