LUT WILLIAMS,BCSP Editor
ATLANTA, GA – For the second consecutive year, the Black college SportS page is picking
two all-American teams – what we dub the “Baad Teams” – from the 2025 football season (see above).
One squad represents the HBCU star players that compete in Div. I Football Championship
Subdivision (FCS) conferences and the other representing the HBCU stars that compete in
NCAA Div. II or NAIA conferences.
The separation comes after the BCSP in 2023 went away from ranking the Top Ten teams in all of black college football to BCSP Top Fives of FCS and Div. II/NAIA teams. We revealed the Final Top Fives last week.
Given this new designation, the BCSP now selects offensive and defensive players of the year and a coach of the year from each of the divisions.
The runaway offensive players of the yearfor 2025 and leaders of their respective team’s list of stars are Alabama State junior quarterback Andrew Body for the FCS black college all-Americans and Virginia Union senior running back Curtis Allen for the Div. II/NAIA Baad
Team.
Each distinguished himself in special ways, maybe even in staggering ways, this season.
Body, a 6-foot, 205-pounder who transferred from Texas Southern in 2024, despite playing in only eight games in 2025, led the SWAC in passing yards per game (264.0), passing efficiency (202.9) and rushing (708 yds., 88.5 ypg.).
Despite playing in only eight games because of injuries, he still led all SWAC passers with 24 touchdowns with just one interception. His passing efficiency number, had he qualified, would have been nine points better than any FCS passer in the nation and is over 30 points better than any black college passer. His 352.4 yards of total offense per game topped the black college chards and was an average of 66 yards better than anyone else.
Body, a scintillating runner and passer from Corpus Christi, Texas, was well on his way to
passing for over 3,000 yards and rushing for over 1,000 yards.
Allen sat for two years behind 2024 Baad Team offensive player of the year Jada Byers
before exploding on the scene this season.
The big 6-2, 215-pounder out of Petersburg, Va. seemed to glide his way past defenders as
if they were standing still enroute to a record-breaking season.
Allen led all black college and Div. II rushers in yards (2,406), yards per game (200.5),
touchdowns (30), scoring (180 points, 15.0 points per game) and all-purpose yards (205.8 ypg.). His 8.03 yards per carry was fourth-best in Div. II.
For his efforts he was named this week as the 2025 recipient of the Harlon Hill Trophy, the
CAA Div. II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the most outstanding player in Div. II football.
Allen becomes the first student athlete from Virginia Union, the CIAA, and any historically
black college or university to earn the sport’s highest individual honor at the Division II level, marking a breakthrough moment for HBCU football on the national stage.
On the defensive side, Central State senior Dominick Davis II was hard to ignore – he stuffed the stat sheet.
At just 5-11, 204 pounds, Davis was a terror. He lead all black college tackles with 113 stops, 11.3 per game for the Marauders. He posted double-digit tackles in nine of ten games. Davis also shows up in the top five with 1.65 tackle for loss per game.
Jackston State’s Quincy Ivory, a 6-3, 235 prototypical pro linebacker, was a Buck Buchanan Award finalist and HBCU Player of the Year finalist for the Tigers as a defensive lineman. Ivory is our FCS Defensive Player of the Year.
He finished the regular season with a team-high 64 tackles including 31 solo, while also
recording 13.5 tackles for loss and 6.0 sacks. He also recorded an interception, recorded five quarterback hurries, forced one fumble, and recovered two others. Ivory recorded eight or more tackles four times.
Choosing the top coach in FCS and Div. II black college football was not as clear cut.
Second-year head man Chennis Berry of South Carolina, first-year head men Tremaine
Jackson of Prairie View A&M and DeSean Jackson of Delaware State had outstanding
seasons.
The BCSP chooses Berry for this year’s FCS award after his Bulldogs repeated as Mid Eastern Athletic Conference champs and knocked off Tremaine Jackson’s Panthers of Prairie View in a thrilling come-from-behind 40-38 victory in four overtimes at Celebration Bowl X two weeks ago in Atlanta.
A year after leading Valdosta State to the Div. II nationally championship game, Tremaine
Jackson led Prairie View to its first SWAC championship since 2009. Former NFL all-pro
DeSean Jackson stunningly turned around a seemingly moribund DelState program, leading the Hornets to an 8-4 overall record, only losing in the MEAC to South Carolina State in the last game of the regular season.
Both third-year head coaches Quinn Gray of Albany State and Maurice Flowers of Johnson C. Smith won titles in the SIAC and CIAA respectively. But Gray’s Golden Rams went further. As the top seed in Super Region II his squad won two playoff games to make it to the Div. II Super Region II finals, farther than the Golden Rams had been in their storied football history. For leading the Rams to uncharged territory, Gray gets our Div. II Coach of the Year award.
