Opont Nominated For 2019 Cliff Harris Award, Nation’s Top Small College Defensive Player

CLIFF HARRIS AWARD RELEASE

BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott junior defensive lineman Sam Opont (Bridgeport, Conn.) has been named a nominee for the 2019 Cliff Harris Award, as announced by the organization earlier today.

The Cliff Harris Award is presented annually to the nation's top small college defensive player representing more than 5,000 defensive players from almost 500 NCAA Division II, Division III, and NAIA colleges and universities.

Opont is the first student-athlete in Endicott football program history to be nominated for the Cliff Harris Award. Opont will learn if he is a finalist for the award next week, on Monday, December 23.

Meanwhile, the Cliff Harris Award overall winner – who will be selected by a prestigious committee made up of former college and pro football greats – in addition to the top vote-getter from each division for the award, and all award finalists will be honored at the Little Rock Touchdown Club's annual awards banquet on Thursday, January 9, 2020. The winner will receive the $3,000 Cliff Harris Award trophy, presented by Cliff Harris and featured speaker Archie Griffin.

As for Opont, the junior defensive lineman's 2019 season was one for the record books as he received numerous postseason honors including the Commonwealth Coast Football (CCC Football) Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year award, D3football.com All-Region Third Team honors, and CCC Football All-Conference First Team accolades.

Opont accomplished all of this by posting 59 tackles (24 solo, 35 assisted), 7.5 of them which went for a loss, two sacks, one quarterback hurry, and a forced fumble. Opont finished the year ranked third on the team in total tackles (19th in the conference) and third on the squad in assisted tackles (seventh in the league).

As a team, behind Opont's play, the Gulls concluded the year ranked No. 1 in the league in points allowed per game (18.4) and points allowed (202), second in rushing yards allowed per game (132.1) and sacks (17), and third in yards allowed per game (360.0), passing yards allowed per game (227.9), and tackles per game (71.5).

MORE ON CLIFF HARRIS

Cliff Harris was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas spent most of his formative years in Hot Springs and graduated from high school at Des Arc. He played multiple sports growing up but received little interest from college recruiters. A family friend convinced second-year Ouachita Baptist University head coach Buddy Benson that Harris deserved a chance to play college football, and Harris made a name for himself in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference from 1966-69. Harris' father had starred in football at Ouachita in the 1940s.

Harris was overlooked in the 1970 NFL draft, but Gil Brandt, who headed the legendary scouting operation for the Dallas Cowboys, was well aware of the player at the small school in Arkadelphia. Harris, in fact, won a starting position with the Cowboys as a rookie in 1970. His rookie season was interrupted by a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, but Harris wasted no time regaining his starting position following his military commitment.

During the next decade, the hard-hitting Harris changed the way the position of free safety was played in the NFL. He rarely left the field, often leading the team not only in interceptions but also in yardage on kickoff and punt returns. In just 10 years as a Cowboy, Harris played in five Super Bowls (the Cowboys won two of them), was named to the Pro Bowl six times and was named a first-team All-NFL player for four consecutive seasons by both The Associated Press and the Pro Football Writers Association.

Harris was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2004. He also was named to the Dallas Cowboys Silver Season All-Time Team and was selected by Sports Illustrated as the free safety on the magazine's All-Time Dream Team. Harris was awarded the NFL Alumni Legends Award. For years, the Cliff Harris Celebrity Golf Tournament has been one of the leading charity events in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Harris also heads the FCA Charity Golf Tournament in Hot Springs. 

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(Photo Credit - David Le '10)