Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina football claimed two-thirds of the final 2024 Southern Conference regular-season weekly awards on Monday as redshirt freshman quarterback Taron Dickens and junior defensive back Jordy Lowery were selected as the SoCon Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, stemming from WCU's road win at Samford last Saturday.
 
The SoCon's weekly awards are selected and announced by the league office from nominations submitted by the media relations or communications personnel at each member institution. Dickens is just the second SoCon player to earn multiple offensive weekly awards this season, while also making WCU one of three league schools to have multiple players with selections – Mercer had three different players honored with WCU and ETSU both seeing two different players honored.
 
Dickens led the Catamounts to their third victory in his four career starts this year in helping guide WCU to the 47-42 road win over Samford in Birmingham last Saturday. The win snapped a 10-game road losing skid to the Bulldogs in the head-to-head series, marking WCU's first road win over Samford since 1969 – the first as NCAA Division I opponents and as members of the SoCon.
 
Dickens, who also won the weekly award back on Nov. 4 after passing for over 400 yards against Chattanooga, completed a career-high 36 passes among his 46 attempts (78.3 percent) for 408 yards and three touchdowns. He owns two of the 21 combined 400-yard passing performances in the NCAA FCS this fall. Of those 21, only his two have been turned in by a freshman this season.
 
Dickens completed the 2024 SoCon regular-season leading the league in completion percentage at 73.8 percent. He also tossed 12 touchdown passes over seven seasonal games – four as a starter – to match counterpart Cole Gonzales, the Oct. 21 weekly award winner and one of the top offensive performers in the NCAA FCS.
 
Also on Monday, Dickens was again listed among the honorable mentions for the Stats Perform FCS National Freshman of the Week honor. He was also listed as a finalist for the 2024 Jerry Rice Award which goes to the nation's top FCS freshman.
 
Lowery continued his strong defensive performance for the Catamounts in last week's victory over Samford. The Bartow, Fla., product was credited with three solo tackles from his starting cornerback position. More impressively, though, Lowery tallied a single-game career-high two interceptions, returning one for a touchdown in the winning effort at Samford. Lowery's first pick came at the 8:06 mark of the second quarter ending a Samford drive at the WCU 22-yard line. Then, he single-handedly thwarted a would-be scoring drive for the Bulldogs with just 21 seconds remaining in the first half with his second interception he returned 92 yards for a touchdown.
 
Lowery's two interceptions in one game were the most for a WCU player since Samaurie Dukes picked off a pair of passes against ETSU back in November of 2023. It was the 17th time a WCU defender had two interceptions in the same game. The 92-yard pick-six represented the longest by a Catamount since Ahmed Green returned an interception 73 yards back in 2001. Lowery's 92-yard return represents the second-longest in program history, only trailing a program-record 99-yard return by Julius Grant against Marshall back in 1993.
 
Lowery completed the regular season tied for second in the SoCon with his single-year-best six interceptions, tied for the second-most in the league this fall. His 0.5 interception per game average ranked him tied for second in the NCAA FCS.
 
The 2024 All-Southern Conference postseason awards are set to be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 26, by the league office.
 
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Western Carolina's Weekly SoCon Awards in 2024:
Oct. 21 – Cole Gonzales, Jr. QB (Offense)
Nov. 4 – Taron Dickens, R-Fr., QB (Offense)
Nov. 18 – Christian Lowery, Jr., PK (Special Teams)
Nov. 25 – Taron Dickens, R-Fr., QB (Offense) and Jordy Lowery, Jr., DB (Defense)
 
Western Carolina's National Weekly Awards in 2024:
Sept. 23 – De'Andre Tamarez, Offense (Honorable Mention)
Sept. 23 – De' Andre Tamarez, FCS Nation Radio National Player of the Week
Oct. 21 – Cole Gonzales, Offensive Player of the Week
Oct. 21 – Rylan Wells, Our Coaching Network National OC of the Week
Nov. 4 – Taron Dickens, Freshman of the Week
Nov. 18 – Christian Lowery, Special Teams (Honorable Mention)
Nov. 18 – Taron Dickens, Freshman (Honorable Mention)
Nov. 24 – Taron Dickens, Freshman (Honorable Mention)