Four Tigers Earn All-North Region Honors From D3Football.com
Aaron Coeling and Victor Banjo named to second team and Zach Culvahouse and Evan Grissom claim third team awards.
Springfield, Ohio — Wittenberg University football standouts Aaron Coeling (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville), Victor Banjo (Sugarland, Texas/Stephen F. Austin), Zach Culvahouse (Fort Myers, Fla./Estero) and Evan Grissom (Piqua, Ohio/Piqua) have earned All-North Region honors from D3football.com.
Coeling, a senior offensive tackle, and Banjo, a senior cornerback, both earned second-team all-region honors, while Culvahouse, a junior wide receiver, and Grissom, a junior placekicker, were placed on the third team following voting by selected sports information directors and D3football.com staff members. It was the third straight year for Coeling on the all-region honor roll, following third-team in 2012 and first-team in 2013, the second appearance for Banjo, who garnered first-team last year as a special teams standout, and the first award for both Culvahouse and Grissom.
After suffering an injury in the preseason, Coeling returned to the lineup at left tackle for 10 games in the 2014 season. One of just four returning starters on the offensive side of the ball, Coeling nonetheless helped the Tigers to the No. 2 position in the final North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) statistics for scoring offense and total offense. Wittenberg finished with the top passing attack in the league with more than 275 yards per game as Coeling allowed just 1.5 sacks all season. Coeling earned first-team All-NCAC three straight years, and he was a third-team All-America selection in 2013 by D3football.com.
Banjo also returned from a preseason injury in 2014, starting the last nine games of the campaign and routinely shutting down the opposing team’s top receivers. He finished the season with 31 tackles, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, three interceptions, nine passes broken up and two blocked kicks, which ran his career total to nine. Banjo, an All-American sprinter for the Tiger track and field team, earned first-team All-NCAC after collecting second-team honors a year earlier.
Culvahouse put together a record-breaking season in his first year as a starter. He came into 2014 with just eight career catches, but he immediately emerged as the Tigers’ top offensive weapon, piling up a school-record 14 receptions in a season-opening loss to Butler. By season’s end, Culvahouse had accumulated a school-record 81 receptions and became just the fourth wideout in program history to surpass 1,000 receiving yards in a season. He earned first-team All-NCAC honors.
Grissom continued his assault on Wittenberg’s football record book with a tremendous 2014 season. He led the NCAC in every kicking category, finishing a perfect 39-of-39 on extra points and 14-of-15 on field goals, both of which set new program standards. For his career, Grissom is 21-of-24 on field goals and 102-of-104 on PATs, both of which rank as the best in program history in terms of accuracy. He was a second-team All-NCAC selection in 2013 and first-team in 2014.
Wittenberg bounced back from a season-opening loss to NCAA Division I FCS opponent Butler to win its fifth NCAC title in the last six years and league-best 13th since joining the NCAC in 1989. The Tigers were defeated in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Division III Tournament by Washington & Jefferson to finish with records of 9-2 overall and 9-0 in the NCAC.
Written By: Ryan Maurer