Clemson tailback Travis Etienne is the ACC Football Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, while teammate Isaiah Simmons earned ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
The 2019 season award winners were chosen by a vote of a select 46-member media panel and the league’s 14 head coaches.
Etienne is the seventh player to be voted ACC Player of the Year twice and the second in a four-year span. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson was a repeat winner in 2016-2017.
The junior from Jennings, La., enters Saturday night’s ACC Football Championship game versus Virginia with 1,386 yards rushing this season while scoring 18 TDs.
Also voted the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, Etienne is the first player in Clemson history to rush for at least 15 touchdowns in multiple seasons. He ranks third among ACC players this season in overall scoring, and his 342 career points are the most in league history by a non-kicker.
Simmons, a linebacker, owns a team-high 83 tackles and ranks sixth among ACC defenders with 14 tackles for loss. The junior from Olathe, Kan., has also registered six quarterback sacks as the leader of a Clemson unit that leads the nation in fewest points allowed per game (10.1) and ranks second in total defense.
A Bednarik and Nagurski finalist, Simmons posted a season-high 11 tackles with 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks in the Tigers’ win over Syracuse early in the season. He earned ACC Linebacker of the Week, Lott IMPACT Trophy Player of the Week and Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week honors following that performance.
Simmons closed the regular season with 10 tackles, including two for loss, a sack and a pass breakup in last Saturday’s 38-3 win at rival South Carolina.
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