EMCC’s Ty Keyes named NJCAA All-America First Team; Lions earn No. 2 final national ranking

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – East Mississippi Community College quarterback Ty Keyes has been named to the 2023 NJCAA Division I Football All-America First Team after leading the conference champion and national runner-up EMCC Lions to a No. 2 ranking in this year's postseason poll. The selections were made this week by the NJCAA Football Committee.

Having already been selected this year's NJCAA Region 23 Most Valuable Player and MACCC All-North Division Offensive Player of the Year, Keyes led NJCAA Division I football by passing for 3,350 yards and 33 touchdowns through the air. Along with finishing second nationally with an average of 257.7 passing yards per game, the Southern Miss bounce-back signal-caller completed 58.2 percent (263-of-452) of his passes on the year and posted a passing efficiency of 139.7.

With a trio of 300-yard passing games and nine outings with multiple throwing touchdowns in a game this past season, Keyes' single-game career highs of 472 passing yards and six touchdown throws came during EMCC's 65-17 home win over Holmes on Sept. 21.

A former two-time Mississippi Gatorade Football Player of the Year and three-time Class 2A Mr. Football by the Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) at Taylorsville High School, Keyes becomes East Mississippi Community College's ninth NJCAA All-America quarterback during the Buddy Stephens coaching era. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Keyes joins previous first-team EMCC honorees Chad Kelly (2014), Dontreal Pruitt (2013), Bo Wallace (2011 NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year), and Randall Mackey (2009). In addition, former Lions quarterback De'Andre Johnson collected second-team honors in 2016, while Messiah deWeaver (2018), Quez Johnson (2012), Brad Henderson (2010), and Mackey (2008) all received honorable mentions.  

East Mississippi's season-ending No. 2 team ranking in the NJCAA Division I postseason football poll comes on the heels of the Lions' national runner-up finish during last week's NJCAA championship loss to the new No. 1-ranked and repeat national champion Iowa Western Community College Reivers.

Having steadily inched up the national rankings during their eight-game winning streak into the national title game, including successfully defending their MACCC championship with wins over top-10 conference foes Mississippi Gulf Coast and Copiah-Lincoln as well as knocking off previously unbeaten and then-No. 1 Hutchinson (Kan.), the 10-3 EMCC Lions registered their eighth season under Stephens with double-digit wins. They have now been ranked among the final top-15 NJCAA football teams during 14 of the 15 playing seasons under Stephens' guidance.

EMCC's average season-ending NJCAA ranking position during those 15 playing seasons under Stephens (2008-2023, minus opt-out 2020 season due to the pandemic) is No. 4.73, which includes 12 top-10 final rankings, eight top-5s, five No. 1s, and a pair of No. 2s. The Lions previously claimed season-ending No. 1 rankings following their NJCAA championship campaigns of 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018, while EMCC's prior No. 2 final ranking came in 2016. The Lions finished sixth in the NJCAA's postseason football poll during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Other MACCC schools finishing among the 2023 NJCAA Division I top-15 postseason football poll included MACCC runner-up Copiah-Lincoln (#4), Mississippi Gulf Coast (#8) and Northwest Mississippi (#13). Northeast Mississippi also received votes in the final poll.