JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The United Athletic Conference (UAC) has announced its weekly football awards for the week of Aug. 31 with Central Arkansas, North Alabama, Tarleton State and West Florida taking home honors.
Donovyn Omolo from Central Arkansas earned Offensive Player of the Week after he had a monster game for the Bears in the team’s 36-24 win over No. 22 UT Martin. In his first game with UCA, the quarterback went 20-for-27 through the air for 243 yards and three scores. The sophomore out of Conway added in 12 rushing attempts for 118 yards and one touchdown of his own for 361 yards of offense.
West Florida’s Byron Puryear snagged Defensive Player of the Week after he helped the Argos to their first Division I win over No. 16 Southern Illinois Thursday night. The defensive end recorded seven total tackles (five solo, two assisted) with three of them coming for a loss (18 TFL yards). He went on to notch a sack for a nine yard loss and had one quarterback hurry in the historic 34-31 victory.
DeAndre Buchannon from Tarleton State earned Specialist of the Week after notching 76 yards on two kickoff returns - one of them recorded as a 45-yard return in the Texans 49-30 win over Prairie View A&M. With his two returns on Saturday, Buchannon is already averaging 38.0 yards per return - over 13 yards more than the next closest UAC player.
North Alabama’s Xavier Johnson took Freshman of the Week honors after the redshirt freshman scored the Lions first touchdown of the season, which also happened to be his first collegiate score. Johnson broke the UNA record with a 95-yard catch to open the season while adding in four more catches and a total of 129 receiving yards in the 22-10 win over Samford.
Requests for interviews should be directed to:
Claire Johnson, Senior Director, Strategic Communications & Content
Unisun Sports / claire.johnson@unisunsports.com
About the United Athletic Conference
The United Athletic Conference (UAC) was established in 2023 as a single-sport football conference through a partnership between the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and the former Western Athletic Conference. In July 2026, the ASUN and UAC formed Unisun Sports to further strengthen the conference, which now features eight football-playing member institutions: Abilene Christian University (Abilene, Texas), Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, Tenn.), the University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Ark.), Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, Ky.), the University of North Alabama (Florence, Ala.), Tarleton State University (Stephenville, Texas), the University of West Georgia (Carrollton, Ga.) and the University of West Florida (Pensacola, Fla.).