Hartigan leads I-AA All-Americans

Nick Hartigan bulled through defenses on his way to a record-setting championship season for Brown and earned a spot on The Associated Press Division I-AA All-America team.

The Rhodes Scholar interview didn’t go quite as well.

The day before Hartigan set an Ivy League mark for career touchdowns and helped the Bears win their first outright league title, he faced a panel of eight scholars who questioned him about his thesis on the role of religion in politics.

“The scary part is they can challenge what you answer,” the political science major said recently. “These people are brilliant people, and they come back with something and immediately you’re second guessing everything you just said. So that was tough.”

Probably not as tough as Hartigan was on opposing defenses. The senior ran for 1,727 yards, tops in the nation, and scored 21 touchdowns. He finished his career with 52 touchdowns in four seasons, topping the Ivy League record of 50 set by Cornell’s Ed Marinaro in three years.

Joining Hartigan on the All-America offense were Eastern Washington quarterback Erik Meyer, who led I-AA with 4,003 yards passing; and Portland State running back Joe Rubin, who ran for 1,702 yards.

The wide receivers are Laurent Robinson of Illinois State and David Ball of New Hampshire. Ball’s teammate, Jonathan Williams, is the tight end. Robinson leads the nation in receiving yards at more than 133 a game.

The offensive line features five seniors: Paul McQuistan of Weber State, Jeff Bolton of Montana State, Matt Magerko of James Madison, Chad Motte of Georgia Southern and Stafford Davis of Illinois State.

Magerko, Cal Poly defensive end Chris Gocong and Massachusetts safety Shannon James made the first team for the second straight season.

Defensive lineman Brent Hawkins gave Illinois State three players on the first team, the most of any school. Hawkins is second in the country with 17 sacks. Gocong leads with 23.5.

Rounding out the defensive line are Fred Evans of Texas State and Marques Murrell of Appalachian State, which will play in the I-AA championship game Saturday against Northern Iowa.

The linebackers are Justin Durant of Hampton, Maurice Bennett of Lafayette and Willie Freeman of Furman.

James leads the defensive backs with Princeton’s Jay McCareins, who leads the nation in interceptions with nine – including two he returned for touchdowns.

The other defensive backs are Tony LeZotte of James Madison, a sophomore who was a second-team pick as a freshman, and Reed Doughty of Northern Colorado.

Wes Taylor of Florida A&M was the punter, Jarrett Johnson of Idaho State the kicker and Bethune-Cookman’s Ricky Williams, who averaged more than 31 yards a kick return with two touchdowns, the all-purpose player.

Grambling State’s Bruce Eugene was the quarterback on the second team after throwing 50 touchdown passes. He broke the NCAA Division I record for career touchdown passes with 140, surpassing the mark held by Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State, another Southwestern Athletic Conference quarterback.

Ricky Santos of New Hampshire made the third team. He threw for 3,797 yards and 39 touchdowns, and had the Wildcats ranked No. 1 much of the season.

Two of Hartigan’s teammates made the third-team defense, linebacker Zak DeOssie and defensive back James Gasparella.

Maine senior center Ben Lazarski was a third team pick.

As tough as facing all those geniuses was for Hartigan, it wasn’t as stressful as playing a football game.

“Any sort of an individual thing is not pressure because it’s just me and if I don’t win it that’s fine,” he said. “Football games are about entire teams.”