Football’s Tyjae Spears Earns New Orleans Athlete of the Month Honor

Release Courtesy of the Allstate Sugar Bowl

NEW ORLEANS – Tulane running back Tyjae Spears has been selected as the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month for November. Monthly award-winners are selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Spears is the second straight Green Wave football player to earn the honor, joining quarterback Michael Pratt, who collected the October award.

Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month

A junior running back from Ponchatoula, Spears led Tulane to a 3-1 record in November and an opportunity to play for the American Athletic Conference (AAC) title at home tomorrow (Saturday) against UCF. In four games in November, Spears rushed 70 times for 589 yards and five touchdowns and he extended his streak of games with 120 or more rushing yards to six – the longest active streak in the nation. He also added a receiving touchdown.

His top performance came on November 25 against Cincinnati when he ran for a season-high 181 yards on 35 carries as the Green Wave shocked Cincinnati on its home field, 27-24, to wrap up the AAC regular-season title and home field for the league championship game. The win snapped the Bearcats' 32-game home winning streak. It was also the first time that Tulane has beaten a ranked team since 1984 and the first time that the Green Wave won a ranked-against-ranked match up since 1956 against Ole Miss. Spears rushed for 121 yards and two TDs in a Nov. 17 win over SMU and 157 yards in a Nov. 5 victory over Tulsa. In the Wave's lone loss of the month, the 5-11, 195-pounder tallied 130 rushing yards on just eight carries in a loss to UCF. On November 30, Spears was named the AAC's Offensive Player of the Year.

Tomorrow's showdown with No. 22 UCF at Yulman Stadium will be the first-ever conference championship game appearance for the 18th-ranked Green Wave. Tulane has not won a league title since 1998.

Spears earned the honor over a pair of high school football stars and two elite volleyball players.

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee has been selecting an Amateur Athlete of the Month each month since 1957. The athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region in order to be eligible.

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Recent Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month:
2022
November      Tyjae Spears                                 Football                                      Tulane University
October           Michael Pratt                               Football                                      Tulane University
September     P.J. Martin                                     Football                                      De La Salle High School
August              Chris Olivier                                  Baseball                                     New Orleans Boosters
July                    Gavriella Smith                            Tennis                                         Lusher Academy/Penn
June                  Alia Armstrong                            Track & Field                            LSU
May                   Ismael Kone                                 Track & Field                            University of New Orleans
April                   Tristyn Baugh                               Softball                                       Archbishop Hannan High School
March               Myles Burns                                 Basketball                                 Loyola University
February          Kelsey Major                                Soccer                                         Dominican High School
                            Jaylee Womack                           Basketball                                 Ponchatoula High School
January            Derek St. Hilaire                          Basketball                                 University of New Orleans

2021
December       Kyle Cannon                                 Football                                      St. Charles Catholic High School

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 100 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 20 Heisman Trophy winners in its 88-year history. The 89th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will feature top teams from the SEC and the Big 12, is scheduled to be played on December 31, 2022. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.2 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.

-AllstateSugarBowl.org-

Football’s Tyjae Spears Earns New Orleans Athlete of the Month Honor

Players Mentioned

Michael Pratt

Tyjae Spears

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