HICKORY, N.C. – A committee has selected the Lenoir-Rhyne Football All-Decade Team. The 2010-19 era was the most successful in LR Football history, producing five more wins than any other decade in history (the next closest was 78 wins in the 1950's). The Bears went 83-35 in the decade and won six South Atlantic Conference Championships while advancing to the NCAA Playoffs five times. In 2013, the Bears went to a National Championship game and have advanced to the Regional Final three times. LR was nationally ranked for 54 weeks and was as high as No. 2 nationally.

The all-decade team will be broken into three installments. Due to shifting offensive and defensive schemes over the past 10 years, we chose 12 offensive and defensive players. Today, we focus on the offense.

Players at each position are listed alphabetically.

QB: Grayson Willingham
The signal-caller is a record-breaking QB who still has one year left with the Bears. The most important stat for Willingham is his 25-3 record as a starter and his 17-0 record (including playoffs) against SAC opponents. On top of the wins, Willingham not only owns the record for all-time passing touchdowns, he is going to shatter it. Willingham's 53 TDs are 14 more than anyone else in the 100-year history of LR Football with 2020 to build on that total. Willingham also ranks third in history with 4,459 yards and his 59.4 percent completion percentage in 2019 is the best in program history. Before Willingham became the starter, no QB had thrown more than 18 touchdowns in a season. Willingham has thrown 26 touchdowns in each of his two seasons under center.

RB: Chris Robinson, Jarrod Spears, Isaiah Whitaker
In the decade, Lenoir-Rhyne led the nation in rushing on four different occasions so narrowing it down to three backs was tough. However, Robinson, Spears and Whitaker stood out. Each of the three ran for over 2,000 yards in their career and topped 20 career touchdowns. Robinson rushed for 1,418 yards in 2014, the second-most in a single season in history. He was an All-Conference performer and was named All-American. Spears ranks eighth in history with 2,971 career yards and his 4,566 all-purpose yards ranks third. Spears averaged an LR record 13.3 yards per carry in 2012 and had 11 100-yard rushing games. Whitaker's 2,700 career yards place him 10^th all-time and his 562 attempts rank eighth. Whitaker was a three-time All-Conference performer in his tenure and a two-time All-American on top of being team captain.

OL: Zach Bunn, Kaleb Myrick, Jason Poe, Joe Ray, Chandler Rearden
Perhaps Lenoir-Rhyne should be known as O-Line-U at the D2 level. In the decade, LR produced eight of the 10 Jacobs Blocking Trophy winners. The award, given to the best offensive linemen in the conference, is voted on by the league coaches and the reason LR was the best rushing team in the nation four times is the contributions of the O-Line.  Chronologically, Reardon started the decade with back-to-back Jacobs Blocking Trophy award and then Myrick won in 2012. Joe Ray won three-straight, giving LR six consecutive winners. After two years without a winner, Poe earned the distinction in both 2018 and 2019. This group combined for eight All-American honors and 13 All-Conference awards.

WR: T.J. Smith, Nick Stutts
Despite playing three years with LR, Smith is one of the most decorated receivers in history. Smith ranks ninth all-time with 15 career touchdowns and his 1,059 yards receiving in 2018 ranks as the third-most in team history. Smith also hauled in 12 TD passes in 2018, the second-most total in a single season and his 3-TD game against Tusculum is tied for the most in a game in history. Stutts, despite playing in a run-oriented offense, still put up strong numbers and was a tremendous run blocker from the WR position. In the two seasons he played during the decade (his first two seasons were '08 and '09), Stutts had 72 receptions for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns. Stutts averaged 15.9 yards per catch and had a 10-catch, 156-yard performance against North Greenville in 2011.

Flex: Jaquay Mitchell
Mitchell was one of the most unique two-way threats in LR history during his four years. In fact, Mitchell is the only player in the 100-year history of LR Football to top 1,000 yards in both rushing and receiving. Mitchell had 1,095 yards through the air and seven touchdowns and added 1,105 yards rushing and seven more touchdowns. He averaged 7.1 yards per rush and also had 845 kickoff return yards and took a punt return to the house. Mitchell had the only 99-yard reception in LR history and earned All-Conference honors in 2019.

Make sure to check back tomorrow for the second installment of LR's All-Decade Team.