FRISCO, Texas – HCU's Champ Dozier, Southeastern's Ian Goodly, and McNeese's Cam Thomas are the winners of the Southland Conference’s football weekly awards for the first week of the season, as announced by the conference office Monday.

Offensive Player of the Week: Champ Dozier, HCU – RB – Fr. – Royse City, Texas (Royse City HS)
In his collegiate debut, Dozier rushed 11 times for 97 yards and three touchdowns in HCU's dominant 66-0 win over Arkansas Baptist in Week 1 action last Saturday. After HCU raced to a 21-0 lead early in the first half, Dozier tacked on two more rushing scores for the Huskies and closed the half with 63 yards and a 35-0 lead at the break. Dozier then opened the scoring in the third quarter with a 23-yard scamper for his third touchdown of the night and took the rest of the night off as the Huskies cruised to victory. The Huskies' 66 points is the third-highest single-game point total in program history and the highest by an HCU team since the 2019 season in a 68-31 victory over Texas Southern. It was Braxton Harris' first win as head coach of HCU.

Defensive Player of the Week: Ian Goodly, Southeastern – DB – So. – Covington, La. (Covington HS)
Tasked with a tough task of slowing down Will Rogers and the air it out offense of Mississippi State, Goodly finished with a game-high 15 tackles in Saturday's season opener in Starkville. The Covington, Louisiana native is the first Lion to record 15 or more tackles in a game since Alexis Ramos finished with 16 stops in the 2020 (Spring 2021) season finale at Southern Illinois. 
Honorable Mention: Donovan Green, Northwestern State
 
Special Teams Player of the Week: Cam Thomas, McNeese – RB – Jr. – Picayune, Miss. (Picayune HS)
Making his McNeese debut, Thomas, in touching the ball for the first time as a Cowboy, returned a kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown to tie the ballgame at 7-7 midway through the first quarter against Tarleton on Saturday night. He was not kicked to again the rest of the night.
Honorable Mention: Austin Dunlap, Southeastern
 
2023 Southland Football Players of the Week

Date	Offensive	Defensive	Special Teams
Sept. 4	Champ Dozier, HCU	Ian Goodly, Southeastern	Cam Thomas, McNeese

 
Southland weekly award winners are nominated and voted upon by each school’s sports information director. Voting for one’s own athlete is not permitted. To earn honorable mention, a student-athlete must appear on 25 percent of ballots.