Chilton leads Bears on football all-conference team

PIKEVILLE, Ky. – In case you’re still wondering how good a football player Kyle Chilton is, consider this: On Wednesday, he was named All-Mid-South Conference East Division.

Twice.

Chilton, the extraordinary kicker, was named to both the offense and defense units, taking the honor of first-team placekicker and first-team punter.

He was joined on the list by teammates Jamar Porter and Nate Howard.

Chilton, a 5-11, 190 pound junior from Clearwater, Fla., has been honored by the league all season long. He has been named Special Teams Player of the Week four times this season, and was named NAIA Player of the Week once.

In his illustrious career, he has been honored by the MSC seven times and by the NAIA three times. It’s the second – or is it third? – time he’s been named all-conference, and was honorable mention once.

For the season, he hit 7-of-9 field goals, including his last five in a row. His season long was 49 yards, a dozen shy of his school-record 61-yarder. He was also 18-of-19 on PATs for the season. His 39 points led the Bears in scoring this season.

As a punter, Chilton averaged 39.1 yards on 64 punts. He had a long of 65 yards and buried opponents inside the 20 17 different times.

Chilton, however, is likely most proud of his four solo tackles he made on special-teams plays this season.

Porter, a 6-2, 235 pound sophomore from Union, S.C., finished the season with 63 tackles from his defensive end position, 29 of them solos. He had 12 tackles for loss of 39.5 yards and recorded 2.5 sacks. In addition, he recovered three fumbles on the season.

Porter was an honorable-mention member of last year’s list.

Howard, the starting center, was the only Bear to repeat as a first-team member. He anchored the Bears’ offensive line, calling all the blocking schemes this season. A 6-4, 270-pound junior from Huntington, W.Va.

In addition, Howard worked as a long-snapper and recorded nine solo tackles on special teams plays this year.