Thomas Hennigan(Northwest Guilford HS/Appalachian State) named to Second Team All-Sun Belt Conference Football Team

Thomas Hennigan(Northwest Guilford High School) leads Appalachian State University with 54 catches for 673 yards and six games of at least 70 receiving yards…

Sun Belt Conference Football
Second-Team Offense
Dan Ellington, Georgia State (Senior, QB, Olive Branch, Miss.)
Elijah Mitchell, Louisiana (Junior, RB, Erath, La.)
Josh Johnson, ULM (Junior, RB, Opelika, Ala.)
**********Thomas Hennigan, App State (Junior, WR, Greensboro, N.C.)**********
Corey Sutton, App State (Junior, WR, Cornelius, N.C.)
Ja’Marcus Bradley, Louisiana (Senior, WR, Ackerman, Miss.)
Aubry Payne, Georgia State (Junior, TE, Locust Grove, Ga.)
Cooper Hodges, App State (Freshman, OL, Glen St. Mary, Fla.)
Baer Hunter, App State (Junior, OL, Clemmons, N.C.)
Bobby Reynolds, ULM (Senior, OL, Keller, Texas)
Aaron Brewer, Texas State (Senior, OT, Dallas, Texas)
J.l. Gaston, Troy (Senior, OL, Monroeville, Ala.)

Following the Troy game from APP State Sports:

Hennigan, Wideouts Step Up Following Injury
CLICK HERE for a fine photo of Thomas Hennigan, in action for APP State….

TROY, Ala. — Down a man, App State needed someone to elevate their play.

Thomas Hennigan took it upon himself to answer that challenge. He also called on his teammates in the wide receiver room to do the same.

In the Mountaineers’ first game since losing standout receiver Corey Sutton to a torn ACL, App State’s other top targets in the passing game rallied around a similar cause at Troy and helped produce a 48-13 victory that means the Sun Belt Championship Game will return to Boone next weekend.

Alabama native Zac Thomas set career highs for completions (28) and passing yards (326) with headlining performances from Hennigan (11 catches for 140 yards), Jalen Virgil (95 yards with one touchdown on five catches) and Malik Williams (two touchdown receptions). Graduate transfer Keishawn Watson added two catches in his first start for App State, and running back Darrynton Evans capped the scoring with a 25-yard touchdown reception.

“I hate having Corey not out there,” Hennigan said. “He’s a tremendous player, but when he went down last week, I immediately thought that someone has to step up in our room. I kind of put that on myself and also challenged guys like Malik, Keishawn and Virg to step up as well. I think everyone in the receiving room played to their potential.”

Before getting hurt against Texas State, Sutton had scored on a 45-yard pass in the first quarter, and he wasn’t far removed from an eight-catch, 173-yard, three-touchdown game at Georgia State the previous weekend.

As unfortunate as the injury is, the Mountaineers had played their first two games of 2019 without Sutton and fared well offensively.

Hennigan scored in each of those two victories, as he started the season with seven catches for 79 yards against East Tennessee State, and Williams followed a one-TD showing against ETSU by catching six passes for 73 yards against Charlotte. Virgil scored on a run in Week 1 and had two touchdown catches en route to 86 receiving yards against Charlotte.

The Mountaineers didn’t waste any time testing Troy through the air Friday night. App State attempted passes on seven of its first 10 offensive snaps and ended up with a pair of big-play touchdowns: Virgil’s 44-yard score on a deep throw that followed back-to-back completions to Hennigan and Evans’ 52-yard scoring run that capped a five-play drive with two more completions to Hennigan. Williams also had a catch on that series.

With nine catches for 116 yards by halftime, helped by a 43-yard reception in the second quarter, Hennigan already had eclipsed his previous career highs of seven catches (in the ETSU game) and receiving yards (99 against Louisiana in the 2017 regular-season finale).

“I think it was a big confidence booster, after losing Corey last week, to come out this week distributing the ball to all the playmakers and letting them make plays,” Thomas said.

Hennigan’s 11 catches are tied for 10th place in App State’s single-game records, and it was the highest output by an App State receiver since Andrew Peacock caught 12 passes at Georgia in 2013.

Just as noteworthy, App State built a 41-13 lead by converting its first 10 third-down situations, with eight of the conversions occurring on Thomas passes. His 43-yard connection with Hennigan came on a third-and-15 throw.

“Feed the studs,” head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. ‘It’s a player’s game, and I felt like we had a matchup there with Thomas and Virgil. They were depleted in the secondary, so we were trying to attack that.”