Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina senior placekicker Richard McCollum and senior offensive lineman Christian Coulter today received postseason All-America honors from FCS Football Central, a partnership between The Bluebloods, Sports Illustrated/Fan Nation as the organization released its end-of-year awards. McCollum garnered first-team honors while Coulter was a third-team selection.
 
WCU's pair were among 16 honorees from The Southern Conference on Monday as six league schools were represented. Mercer led the way with five selections including three on the first team, followed by Chattanooga with four – one on the first team – and Furman with three, one on each of the three honorary squads. WCU tallied two selections with Samford and ETSU both collecting a second-team selection apiece.
 
FCS players from all 13 conferences and a combined 59 schools were represented. South Dakota State led the country with 10 selections, four on the first team including FCS Football Central Offensive Player of the Year in QB Mark Gronowski. Tennessee State defensive lineman Terrell Allen was dubbed the FCS Defensive Player of the Year, while RB Eli Gillman of Montana earned FCS Freshman of the Year plaudits. Albany's head coach Greg Gattuso collected the FCS Coach of the Year award.
 
McCollum adds the postseason All-America honor from The Blue Bloods to his litany of career awards, tallying his second All-America honor after earning second-team AP All-America in 2022. This season, the Sanford, N.C., product was among the 10 national finalists for the Fred Mitchell Award given annually to the top placekicker in the NCAA FCS, Division II, Division III, NAIA, and NJCAA levels. He was a first-team All-Southern Conference selection by both the league's head coaches and voting media, and twice collected SoCon Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
 
Connecting on 14-of-15 field goals (93.3%) and 51-of-52 PAT attempts, McCollum finished the regular season with a team and SoCon-leading 93 points scored – the fourth-most by an individual in the FCS regular season. He was perfect on field goals inside of 34 yards with four successful kicks of 40+ plus yards. McCollum's lone misses on both field goals and PATs came in the rain in WCU's road win at Eastern Kentucky.
 
McCollum kicked three-or-more PATs eight times during the high-scoring 2023 season including a career-best 11 PATs in WCU's 77-21 win over Charleston Southern back in September. Including the 11 points against CSU, McCollum posted double-digit points four times in 2023. He scored 12 points in the upset victory over No. 7/8 Samford with a trio of field goals from 23, 41, and 18 yards out. McCollum put 10 points on the board in WCU's win over No. 20/24 Chattanooga, connecting on seven PATs and most importantly the 32-yard walk-off game-winning field goal. In his final career home game, he scored a career-best 16 points with seven PATs and three successful field goals from 32, 41, and 24 yards out in the home rivalry-game win over ETSU, earning the FedEx Ground National Special Teams Player of the Week honor from Stats Perform FCS.
 
McCollum closed his career in Cullowhee second all-time in program history with 300 career points, just two shy of matching record-holder Kirk Roach (1984-87), who was a three-time All-America selection.
 
Coulter was one of three WCU offensive linemen to earn All-Southern Conference plaudits and one of two to collect first-team honors. The versatile lineman started all 11 games for the Catamounts, starting the year at left guard before returning to right tackle midway through the year after injuries forced WCU to shuffle its' front five. Coulter was instrumental in helping the Catamounts to a school-record 5,545 yards of total offense and an FCS-leading 504.1 yards of offense per game at the close of regular-season play.
 
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FCS Football Central – 2023 All-America Teams
First-Team Offense:
QB: Mark Gronowski (South Dakota State)
QB: Matthew Sluka (Holy Cross)
RB: Jaden Shirden (Monmouth)
RB: Lan Larison (UC Davis)
RB: Isaiah Davis (South Dakota State)
WR: Dymere Miller (Monmouth)
WR: Jalen Coker (Holy Cross)
WR: Ty James (Mercer) – SoCon
WR: Hayden Hatten (Idaho)
TE: Cam Grandy (Illinois State)
OL: Luke Newman (Holy Cross)
OL: Gus Miller (South Dakota State)
OL: Omar Aigbedion (Montana State)
OL: Pearson Toomey (Furman) – SoCon
OL: Mason McCormick (South Dakota State)
OL: Marcus Wehr (Montana State)
AP: Dylan Laube (New Hampshire)
 
First-Team Defense:
DL: Terrell Allen (Tennessee State)
DL: Alex Gubner (Montana)
DL: Anton Juncaj (UAlbany)
DL: Ty French (Gardner-Webb)
DL: AJ Simon (UAlbany)
LB: John Pius (William & Mary)
LB: Winston Reid (Weber State)
LB: Dylan Kelly (UAlbany)
LB: Jacob Dobbs (Holy Cross)
LB: Billy Shaeffer (Lafayette)
DB: Kam Brown (Chattanooga) – SoCon
DB: PJ Jules (Southern Illinois)
DB: Lance Wise (Mercer) – SoCon
DB: Aamir Hall (UAlbany)
DB: Cole Wisniewski (North Dakota State)
 
First-Team Special Teams:
K: Richard McCollum (Western Carolina) – SoCon
P: Aidan Laros (UT Martin)
KR: Donovan Wadley (Merrimack)
PR: Kam Thomas (Austin Peay)
AP: Devron Harper (Mercer) – SoCon
 
Second-Team Offense:
QB: Davius Richard (North Carolina Central)
QB: Max Brosmer (New Hampshire)
RB: Sam Franklin (UT Martin)
RB: Jevon Jackson (Austin Peay)
RB: Jamar Curtis (Lafayette)
RB: Jordan Fuller (Holy Cross)
WR: Brandon Porter (Incarnate Word)
WR: Chedon James (Idaho State)
WR: Javin Whatley (Chattanooga) – SoCon
WR: Sam Schnee (Northern Iowa)
TE: Zach Heins (South Dakota State)
OL: Garett Greenfield (South Dakota State)
OL: Rush Reimer (Montana State)
OL: Jake Kubas (North Dakota State)
OL: Charles Grant (William & Mary)
OL: Justus Perkins (Montana State)
OL: Jacob Johanning (Furman) – SoCon
AP: Braedon Sloan (Eastern Kentucky)
 
Second-Team Defense:
DL: Daylan Dotson (UT Martin)
DL: Solomon Zubairu (Mercer) – SoCon
DL: Thor Griffith (Harvard)
DL: David Walker (Central Arkansas)
DL: Eric O'Neill (Long Island)
DL: Jay Person (Chattanooga) – SoCon
LB: Ken Standley (Mercer) – SoCon
LB: Colton Adams (Alabama State)
LB: Micah Davey (McNeese State)
LB: Noah Martin (Samford) – SoCon
LB: Jason Freeman (South Dakota State)
LB: Braxton Hill (Montana)
DB: Marcus Harris (Idaho)
DB: Saiku White (Lafayette)
DB: Sheldon Arnold II (ETSU) – SoCon
DB: Kenny Gallop Jr. (Howard)
DB: Isas Waxter (Villanova)
DB: Maxwell Anderson (Weber State)
  QB: Reese Poffenbarger (UAlbany)
QB: Mike DiLiello (Austin Peay)
RB: LaDarius Owens (Texas Southern)
RB: Kayvon Britten (Tarleton State)
RB: Geno Hess (Southeast Missouri State)
RB: Anthony Woods (Idaho)
WR: Kisean Johnson (Alabama State)
WR: Brevin Easton (UAlbany)
WR: Isaiah Wooden (Southern Utah)
WR: Efton Chism III (Eastern Washington)
TE: Bauer Sharpe (Southeastern Louisiana)
OL: Christian Coulter (Western Carolina) – SoCon
OL: Riley Langsdale (Lafayette)
OL: Donny Ventrelli (North Dakota)
OL: Reid Williams (Chattanooga) – SoCon
OL: Noah Atagi (Weber State)
OL: Jackson Slater (Sacramento State)
OL: Josiah Ezirim (Eastern Kentucky)
AP: Marcus Yarns (Delaware)
 
Third-Team Defense:
DL: Elijah Ponder (Cal Poly)
DL: Finn Claypool (Drake)
DL: Steven Parker (Incarnate Word)
DL: Ckelby Givens (Southern)
DL: Khristian Boyd (Northern Iowa)
DL: Brody Grebe (Montana State)
DL: Nate Lynn (William & Mary)
LB: Riley Wilson (Montana)
LB: Isaiah Major (Florida A&M)
LB: Tristan Wheeler (Richmond)
LB: Erick Hunter (Morgan State)
LB: Amir Abdullah (Illinois State)
LB: Logan Blake (Eastern Kentucky)
LB: Isaiah Stalbird (South Dakota State)
DB: Dyshawn Gales (South Dakota State)
DB: Mikey Victor (Alabama State)
DB: Tucker Large (South Dakota State)
DB: Trevin Gradney (Montana)
DB: Woo Governor (Northern Iowa)
DB: Travis Blackshear (Furman) – SoCon
 
Third-Team Special Teams:
K: Will Leyland (South Dakota)
P: Trey Wilhoit (Florida A&M)
KR: Abraham Williams (Weber State)
PR: Jermaine Jackson (Idaho)
AP: Jaylon Spears (Nicholls State)