AFCA Story & Complete List
 
Chosen by a group who watches and knows them the most, a trio of Eastern Washington University football players have been chosen to the American Football Coaches Association NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Coaches' All-America Team announced Friday (May 14).
 
Quarterback Eric Barriere was named as a first team All-America selection for the fourth time in the 2020-21 season, and was joined by offensive tackle Tristen Taylor. Earning his second All-America accolade this spring was wide receiver Talolo Limu-Jones, a second team selection.
 
That trio led Eastern to a 5-2 record and the first round of the FCS Playoffs in the 2020-21 season, including a five-game winning streak to end the regular season. Barriere and Taylor served as team co-captains and joined Limu-Jones as first team All-Big Sky Conference selections in the abbreviated 2020-21 season.
 
"These three teammates played at the top of their game all season long," said Eastern head coach Aaron Best. "It has been a joy to watch all three continue to push to perfect their craft daily. They are awesome people doing awesome things when the lights are on. We are lucky to mentor and witness Tristen, Talolo, and Eric every day consistently progressing and pushing the boundaries of greatness."
 
The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. Eastern has now had 27 players earn a total of 31 honors, which is fourth among all FCS schools. Wide receiver Cooper Kupp, now with the Los Angeles Rams in the National Football League, is the division's only four-time member.
 
Previously, Barriere has been honored as a first team All-American by the FCS Athletic Director's Association (May 13), Associated Press (May 12) and Stats Perform (May 10). The senior from Inglewood, Calif., was also named the FCS Offensive Player of the Year by the FCS ADA.
 
Barriere was joined on the Stats Perform squad by wide receiver Talolo Limu-Jones (second team), and this is the first All-America honor for Taylor. The Eagles have now had 25 offensive linemen earn All-America accolades in 37 years in FCS (1984-2020/21), including 16 first team All-Americans. They have combined for 78 honors (40 first team, 19 second team, 7 third team and 12 honorable mention).
 
With honors won by Taylor and Barriere, the Eagles have won 167 first-team FCS All-America honors in the past 23 seasons (1997-2020/21), with a total of 173 first team honors in school history. Overall, Eastern players have combined for 346 All-America accolades since EWU moved to FCS in 1984
 
On Saturday (May 15), the legendary Walter Payton Award will be announced on the eve of the NCAA Division I Championship game between South Dakota State and Sam Houston. Barriere is one of three finalists, and the award will be announced at 11 a.m. Pacific time that day. Eastern and Villanova currently share the lead in FCS by winning three Payton trophies apiece all-time.
 
A sixth-year senior, in the 2020-21 season Taylor continued his streak of starting every game he's played -- now 47. He graded out at 93 percent for the season according to analytics by the coaching staff – tops on the team. The lone returning starter on the offensive line from the 2019 team, he helped Eastern rank third in total offense in FCS with an average of 522.7 yards per game. Eastern was also fourth nationally in passing (366.7) and eighth in scoring offense (37.7). The Eagles led FCS in total offense during the regular season.
 
As a first team selection, Taylor earned his fourth All-Big Sky award in his career in the 2020-21 season. He was a second-team selection in 2019 and honorable mention in 2016 and 2017.  Taylor had started 28-of-28 games as an Eagle until a season-ending knee injury kept him out of the lineup on Sept. 22, 2018, versus Cal Poly. He redshirted in 2019, then started all 12 Eagle games in the 2020 season and all seven in the 2020-21 campaign.
 
Taylor is from Stockton, Calif., and graduated in 2015 from Stagg HS. He has completed his criminal justice degree and is now working toward a second degree in psychology.
 
Limu-Jones ended the season fourth in FCS in receiving yards per game (108.4) and was is ninth in receptions per game (6.9, total of 48). He now has 42 games of experience (nine as a starter), and has 90 career catches for 1,600 yards and 15 touchdowns – an average of 17.8 per reception (currently sixth in school history). He has averaged a touchdown every 6.0 career catches,
 
He ended the regular season with three-straight performances with at least 140 receiving yards, and had a least a 66-yard catch in all three games. He caught four passes for 140 yards and a 66-yard touchdown reception versus Idaho on April 10 in EWU's come-from-behind 38-31 victory. On April 3 in a 32-22 win over 11th-ranked UC Davis on April 3, Limu-Jones had career highs with 154 yards receiving on 10 catches, including a key 77-yard TD in the third quarter which was his career long. He also scored on a 21-yard TD reception.
 
Like Limu-Jones, Barriere was a unanimous All-Big Sky Conference first team selection in the 2020-21 season and was the league's Offensive Player of the Year. The list of former EWU first team All-Americans at quarterback is impressive – Gage Gubrud, Vernon Adams Jr., Bo Levi Mitchell, Matt Nichols, Erik Meyer and Harry Leons. Mitchell and Meyer turned their honors into Payton Awards in 2011 and 2005, respectively, and Barriere hopes to have his named etched to a trophy this week.
 
Barriere finished fifth in the voting as a junior in the 2019 season, and he made his case for the award in the 2020-21 campaign by passing for at least 300 yards in five of six regular games and having at least 400 yards of total offense in three of them. In the other game, he had 284 passing/324 total offense in barely over two quarters of action in a 62-10 romp.
 
Through seven games, Barriere ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense (sixth, 369.0 per game), passing offense (seventh, 348.4), passing touchdowns (second, 19) and points responsible for (ninth, 17.4 per game). In the 2020-21 season, he completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 2,439 yards, 19 touchdowns and 2,583 total yards of offense.
 
In his illustrious 38-game career, Barriere is now 20-9 as a starter, including 13-0 at home. In the FCS Playoffs he went over the 10,000-yard mark for total offense in his career with a current total of 10,102 – including 8,739 through the air. He ranks fifth in school history in both categories, as well as his career total of 75 TD passes. He's now fourth with 93 total touchdowns responsible for. Eastern career records in those categories are 13,308, 12,616, 110 and 121.
 
Barriere has completed 60.3 percent of his passes in his career (646-of-1071), good for 8,739 yards, 75 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, and has rushed 287 times for 1,363 net yards and 18 more TDs. He had a passing efficiency rating of 146.9 as a sophomore, 151.6 in 2019 and a 148.1 mark in his career to currently rank fifth in school history. Barriere has surpassed the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback -- he now has 1,363 with Vernon Adams Jr. closing his career with 1,232. Eastern is 19-1 when Barriere has rushed for at least 21 yards, with the lone loss coming at Sacramento State (10/5/19) when he finished with 103.
 
 

More on the Payton Award . . .

 
In addition to the announcement of the winner on Saturday, May 15 at 11 a.m. Pacific time, Stats Perform is producing a special FCS Awards show to be aired at various times and dates on Bally Sports Regional Networks (formerly Fox Sports Regional Networks) and other outlets. A complete list of outlets will be distributed later this week by Stats Perform (https://theanalyst.com/na/sport/american-football/fcs/). A program for the event is available at: https://theanalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2020-21-FCS-Awards-Program.pdf.
 
The other finalists for this year's Payton Award are quarterback Cole Kelley of Southeastern Louisiana and running back Julius Chestnut of Sacred Heart. That trio was among the 16 finalists previously announced for the Payton, named for the legendary running back and in its 34th season. Voting was conducted prior to the postseason.
 
Past recipients of the Heisman of the FCS include Steve McNair, Tony Romo, Brian Westbrook, Jimmy Garoppolo and Cooper Kupp. Kupp was EWU's latest recipient in 2015, with other former Eagles honored including Erik Meyer (2005) and Bo Levi Mitchell (2011). Also, the most recent recipient in 2019, former North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance, was the No. 3 pick overall by the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL Draft on April 29, 2021.
 
"It means a lot because this is a special award that many great players before me have been a part of and won," said the 6-foot, 200-pound Barriere, who is from Inglewood, CaIif. "I'm very thankful for the honor."
 
Chestnut (Northeast) and Kelley (Southland) also received the offensive player of the year award in their respective conferences, with Barriere and Chestnut guiding their teams to the FCS Playoffs. All three were a Stats Perform national offensive player of the week during the regular season.
 
"Eric Barriere is the best player in America -- he is the most dynamic player at this level and we've known that for some time," said Eastern head coach Aaron Best earlier this season. "He played really, really well for a four or five game stretch. We are all lucky that Eric is part of our Eastern Washington football team for many reasons – not just because of his play on the field but also who he is as a person."
 
"If I was to win, it would be a huge honor for the school because we have had a few previous players win this award previously," Barriere added. "If I could become a part of that it would be a blessing."
 
"He's been phenomenal," said Best. "His play-making ability, ability to escape rush and ability to extend plays has been second-to-none. And we've had a first-hand glimpse of some great ones here. But Eric's development has been thorough and consistent."
 
Chestnut, a 6-1, 215-pound junior, rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown in a playoff loss as well. It followed a four-game regular season in which he led the FCS in rushing yards per game (179.3) and all-purpose yards per game (222.0) and ranked second in points per game (17.0) and fourth in yards per carry (7.7).
 
Kelley, a 6-7, 260-pound senior, played in seven regular-season games, leading the FCS in passing yards (2,662), completions (210), total offensive yards (2,708) and total touchdowns (27). He also was in the top five in pass attempts (305, second), TD passes (18, tied for third) and completion percentage (68.9, fifth).
 
A 40-member national media panel voted on the Payton Award following the unprecedented 2020-21 regular season, which spanned the fall and spring semesters.
 
2020-21 Walter Payton Award Voting Results
A first-place vote was worth five points, a second-place vote four points, a third-place vote three points, a fourth-place vote two points and a fifth-place vote one point.
1. TBA, May 15
2. TBA, May 15
3. TBA, May 15
4. Jakob Herres, WR, VMI: 1-4-5-2-4-44
5. Otis Weah, RB, North Dakota: 1-1-5-2-5-33
6. Aqeel Glass, RB, Alabama A&M: 1-1-2-4-7-30
7. Dejoun Lee, RB, Delaware: 0-4-1-1-1-22
8.(tie) Juwon Farri, RB, Monmouth: 0-2-1-2-5-20
8.(tie) Pierre Strong Jr., RB, South Dakota State: 0-2-1-3-3-20
10. Liam Welch, QB, Samford: 0-1-3-1-4-19
11.(tie) Percy Agyei-Obese, RB, James Madison: 1-0-2-1-1-14
11.(tie) Tyler Hudson, WR, Central Arkansas: 0-1-1-2-3-14
13. Quay Holmes, RB, ETSU: 0-1-2-1-1-13
14. Keith Pearson, WR, Presbyterian: 0-0-0-4-1-9
15. DeAngelo Wilson, WR, Austin Peay: 0-1-1-0-1-8
16. Tim DeMorat, QB, Fordham: 0-0-0-1-0-2