Jermaine Hopkins
Football
1995-96
One of the fiercest competitors to ever lace up a pair of spikes for the Penguin football team, Jermaine Hopkins in the fist YSU Student-Athlete of the Year to be honored posthumously.
A hospitality management major at YSU, he hailed from Miami, Fla., and was a true senior this past season on the Penguin grid team.
At 6-0, 230 pounds, he was considered one of the hardest workers both on and off the field of play, sporting a 3.05 cumulative grade-point average in his major while earning a 3.53 overall GPA during the recently completed fall quarter.
The all-time single-season sacks leader (he registered 15 in 1994 for 105 yards in losses) at YSU, he helped the Penguins to the 1993 and 1994 NCAA Division I-AA National Championship, and was a member of the 1992 runner-up squad during his freshman season.
The “Defensive Player of the Game” on eight separate occasions during his collegiate career, he was the “Lineman of the Game’ on four other occasions and registered 22 career sacks (157 yards) en route to earning four letters as a collegian.
In 1995, he earned First-Team All-America laurels according to the Walter Camp Football Foundation, was a Third-Team Associated Press pick and earned Honorable Mention honors according to The Football Gazette. Named to the preseason All America teams picked by The Sporting News (he was the top rated defensive lineman in all of I-AA), Street and Smith’s College Football Yearbook and Bob Griese’s College Football Yearbook.
He was named as the “Defensive Player of the Game” on two other occasions and was the “Haines Family Player of the Game” for his play against the University at Buffalo at home on Nov 11 this past season.
