Duncan named to Fred Mitchell Award watch list

Carson-Newman senior placekicker Curt Duncan (Morristown, Tenn.) has been added to the Fred Mitchell Award watch list after finishing in the top 10 for the award a year ago.

The Fred Mitchell Award is presented to the kicker from more than 750 schools among the FCS, NCAA Division II and III, NAIA and NJCAA ranks for excellence on the football field and in the community.

Fordham’s Patrick Murray won the award last year after banging home 25 field goals, two shy of the FCS single season record.

Duncan was a Beyond Sports Network and CoSIDA Academic All-American last season. BSN placed him as a preseason first team All-American headed into the 2013 campaign.  He was a first team all-SAC and all-region selection and four-time SAC player of the Week.

Duncan was tops for Carson-Newman in scoring, leading the team with 102 points – the most points scored in a season by a kicker in school history.

Duncan broke a 14-year-old record set in 1998 by Ryan Fleming, who scored 92 points in that season. He connected on 14 of his 15 field goals and all 60 of his extra points.  The 54-yard field goal he blasted against Tusculum (11/3) as time expired in the first half was the longest in school history.

He also became the first C-N kicker to make four field goals in a game for the first time since 1984 – he accomplished that feat twice this year, against Lenoir-Rhyne (9/15) and in the quarterfinals of the DII playoffs against Valdosta State (12/1).  Set the single game scoring record for a kicker against L-R with 17 points (four field goals, five extra points).  Included in that scoring was C-N’s first 50-yard field goal in 15 years.

The winner of the Fred Mitchell Award will be announced in mid-December.