Saylors tabbed Offensive Player of the Week; Keltner picks up second straight Special Teams award

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Oct. 10, 2022) – The ETSU football team picked up a pair of Southern Conference Player of the Week honors as the league office announced their weekly awards on Monday. Jacob Saylors (Jasper, Tenn.) was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week and Tyler Keltner (Tallahassee, Fla.) captured Special Teams Player of the Week for the second straight week. 

Saylors totaled 225 all-purpose yards and three rushing touchdowns in ETSU’s 44-21 win at VMI last Saturday. The Jasper, Tenn. native rushed for 183 yards on a career-high 29 carries, caught three passes for 22 yards and had one 20-yard kickoff return. Saylors, who had rushing scores of 48, 23 and 6 yards, recorded his 10th career game with 100-plus rushing yards, while he accounted for 107 of ETSU’s 157 first-quarter yards. The SoCon Preseason Player of the Year tied a career-high with three rushing touchdowns and his 29 rushing attempts are the most by a SoCon player this season. Overall, Saylors ranks second among FCS players in rushing yards (753), fourth in rushing touchdowns (9), fifth in rushing yards per game (124.7), sixth in all-purpose yards per game (155.0) and seventh in scoring (10.0). 

Keltner, who had a perfect afternoon kicking last Saturday at VMI, is the first SoCon player to receive back-to-back Special Teams Player of the Week honors since VMI’s Grant Clemons accomplished the feat from Oct. 7-14, 2019. The Tallahassee, Fla. native went a perfect 3-for-3 in field goals and 5-of-5 in extra-points, while registering nine kickoffs for 553 yards and three touchbacks. His nine kickoffs tied a career-high and his 553 yards are a new single-game best. Keltner’s field goals came from 44, 48 and 41 yards, while he passed former Buccaneer great JJ Jerman for third all-time on the all-time Buccaneer scoring list with 258 points. Keltner also moved his career field goals total to 48, which is five shy of tying Jerman for the program record and the Buccaneer placekicker is now a perfect 114-for-114 in PATs. By passing Jerman on the all-time scoring list, Keltner is now the all-time leading kicker in school history, while his 258 points rank fifth among active FCS career leaders, his 114 extra-points are 10th and 48 made field goals are fourth. 

The Bucs are back on the road this Saturday when ETSU takes on No. 11 Mercer at 4 p.m. inside Five Star Stadium. 

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