Florida State QB Winston named AP player of the year

The Winter of Winston continues for Florida State's redshirt freshman quarterback.

Jameis Winston was named the Associated Press national player of the year on Tuesday, adding to his haul of postseason accolades.

He's also been named this year's Heisman Trophy winner, the Walter Camp national player of the year, the Davey O'Brien quarterback of the year, and the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year.

As in the Heisman voting, Winston was a landslide winner in the AP player of the year vote. He received 49 out of the 56 votes cast by AP Top 25 college-football poll voters.

Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch received three votes. Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron got two votes. Boston College running back Andre Williams and Michigan State cornerback Darqueze Dennard each received one.

Winston is the first Florida State player to win the award, which has been handed out since 1998, and the first from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Florida State and Winston continued to excel despite a sexual assault investigation that became public last month. The state attorney's office announced that it would not press charges before the ACC championship game.

Winston, a two-sport star, will compete for the closer job for the Seminoles when the college baseball season begins.

The righthander has a fastball that reaches 93 to 95 m.p.h. and throws a slider for strikes. Seminoles baseball head coach Mike Martin Sr. said there are no restrictions on the quarterback outside of the normal rest for pitchers. Winston is poised to become the sixth winner in Heisman history to play collegiate baseball after winning the award and the first since Bo Jackson in 1986, according to STATS, L.L.C.

Jackson, the 1985 Heisman winner, who played for the Kansas City Royals in baseball and Oakland Raiders in the NFL, is also from Winston's hometown of Bessemer, Ala. The 19-year-old Winston said after the Heisman ceremony that he wants to better than Jackson.

Martin Sr. believed Winston could be the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB draft if he focused solely on baseball, but the coach didn't want that. He still sees Winston as a first-round pick in both baseball and football.

Desir top defender. Defensive back Pierre Desir from Lindenwood University in Missouri has won the inaugural Cliff Harris Award honoring the top defensive player from Division II, Division III and NAIA schools.

Desir, a three-time all-American, finished his career ranked first in Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics history in passes defended. His 25 career interceptions are the second-most in conference history and rank him in the top 10 in Division II history.

Coaching changes. Army hired former Navy assistant Jeff Monken as its football coach. Monken spent the last four seasons as the head coach at Georgia Southern after learning the triple-option offense under Paul Johnson during stints with the Middies and Georgia Tech. He had a 38-16 record at Georgia Southern and helped guide the program's transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision from the Football Championship Subdivision ranks.

Southern Illinois defensive coordinator Kyle "Bubba" Schweigert has been hired as the new head football coach at North Dakota.