Moon Township, Pa. – A pair of RMU football student-athletes were honored with postseason accolades by the Big South Tuesday, with junior linebacker
Aniello Buzzacco named to the
2020-21 All-Big South First Team and senior offensive lineman
Trevor Hicks tabbed to the
2020-21 Big South All-Academic Team.
Buzzacco, a native of North Lima, Ohio, led the Big South in 2020-21 in tackles per game with an average of 13.0 per contest. He posted 39 tackles in three games, including 23 solo takedowns, and finished second in the Big South in both total tackles and solo stops. Buzzacco trailed only Cody Cline (40) of Charleston Southern for total tackles and Darion Slade (26) of Campbell for solo stops. The totals for both Cline and Slade came in four contests.
In the 2021 spring opener for the Colonials at No. 2 James Madison (2/27), Buzzacco recorded a season-high 15 tackles, including 10 of the solo variety. He added 10 stops in RMU's Big South debut at Kennesaw State (4/3) and finished with 14 takedowns at Charleston Southern (4/10). Of his 39 tackles during the spring season, Buzzacco notched three tackles for loss.
Thanks to his performance in RMU's spring season opener against the Dukes, Buzzacco became the third RMU student-athlete in program history to finish with at least 15 tackles in a game on three separate occasions. Former linebacker James Noel (2001-05) owns the program record for games with 15 or more tackles with eight, while linebacker Alex DiMichele (2008-10) turned the trick on five occasions.
Dating back to the 2019 campaign, Buzzacco has reached double digits in tackles in six consecutive games as well as 10 of his last 12 contests. During the last 12 games for the Colonials, Buzzacco is averaging 12.6 tackles per contest.
Buzzacco owns 183 career tackles for the Colonials, just 17 short of becoming the 23rd student-athlete in program history to accumulate 200 stops. His selection to the 2020-21 All-Big South First Team marks the second postseason accolade for Buzzacco, who was named to the 2019 All-Northeast Conference (NEC) Second Team after establishing an RMU single-season record for tackles with 131.
Hicks, a native of Washington Court House, Ohio, has been a model of consistency on the offensive line for RMU. He owns 34 career starts for the Colonials, including 27 consecutive. A criminal justice major, Hicks has maintained a 3.63 cumulative grade point average (GPA).
Led by head coach
Bernard Clark, Jr., RMU opens its 2021 fall season Saturday, Sept. 4, at Dayton. The non-conference slate for the Colonials also includes a road game at Central Michigan (9/11) as well as a home game against Howard (9/25) at Joe Walton Stadium.
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