Bye Grabs All-Region Award

MOORHEAD, Minn. (12/10/15)—Concordia senior linebacker Erik Bye earned one more postseason award as he was named to the D3football.com All-West Region Third Team.

Bye becomes the sixth player in the last four years to earn D3football.com honors. The Cobbers have had a player earn All-Region honors from the national website for four consecutive years and have totaled 12 honorees since the award started in 2005.

The D3football.com All-Region award is selected in balloting by West Region sports information directors and D3football.com staff. The three teams were chosen from 249 nominations by Division III member schools. A total of 77 players were chosen.

The All-Region award follows on the heels of Bye's second MIAC All-Conference honor. Bye was named to the MIAC All-Conference First Team this year after earning All-Conference Second Team accolades last season.

From his inside linebacker spot Bye helped Concordia go 7-3 overall and 5-3 in MIAC play. The Cobbers also finished in a tie for third in the final league standings which meant that Bye finished in the top 3 of the MIAC in all four of his seasons at CC. Bye was also part of the Cobber program that earned 31 wins over the past four years.  

Bye led the team in total tackles, assisted tackles and tackles for a loss and was tied for the team lead in sacks. He finished the 10-game season by coming up with a career-high 83 tackles. That number was 29 more than his previous career high. His totals for solo tackles (30), assisted tackles (53), tackles for a loss (6.5) and sacks (3.0) were also career highs.

Bye was in the top 3 of the MIAC in total tackles, assisted tackles and tackles per game for the eight league games.

Bye's top game of the season came at home again St. John's on Sept. 19 when he posted a career-high 17 tackles. His 13 assisted tackles against the Johnnies were also a career high. He was named the MIAC Defensive Player of the Week after his stellar performance against SJU.

Bye had three games this season where he recorded double-digit tackle totals. In addition to his 17-tackle outing vs. St. John's he also had 15 tackles against NCAA semifinalist St. Thomas and 11 tackles vs. Augsburg.    


Past Cobber D3football.com All-Region Award Winners (award started in 2005)
2014 - Nate Adams
2013 - Nate Adams, Kenyon O'Brien
2012 - Brett Baune, Tom Knowlton
2008 - Travis Aufderheide
2007 - Grant Weller
2005 - Travis Almquist, Mark Halley, Brian Halverson, Josh Linman