Four North Carolina college football standouts have been named to the Lindy’s Sports 2025 All-FCS Team, as announced in the magazine’s newly released national preview.
🥇 First Team All-FCS
- Jeff Yurk, Punter, Elon
- Trevon Humphrey, Offensive Line, North Carolina Central
🥈 Second Team All-FCS
- AJ Colombo, Wide Receiver, Western Carolina
- Mari Adams, Running Back, Davidson
All four players hail from North Carolina hometowns and attended North Carolina high schools.
The Lindy’s College Football National 2025 Preview just hit the shelves after Memorial Day and features four pages of FCS coverage, including predictions and snippets for each conference.
Colombo also has been picked as the preseason Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year, while Adams was tabbed for the same honor for the Pioneer Football League.
Player Spotlights
🔹 Jeff Yurk (Elon)
A redshirt senior from Southern Pines (Pinecrest HS), Yurk led the FCS and broke an Elon record last season in punting yardage, averaging 47.9 yards across 60 attempts. He had a long of 72 yards, recorded 26 punts of at least 50 yards and put 19 boots inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. He was a first-team All-America pick by multiple outlets.
🔹 Trevon Humphrey (North Carolina Central)
The junior from Greensboro (Dudley HS) anchored the MEAC’s highest scoring offense in 2024 (35.5 points per game) and strongest rushing attack (180.8 ypg). Humphrey earned first-team All-MEAC honors and was named the MEAC offensive lineman of the week last October.
🔹 AJ Colombo (Western Carolina)
The senior from Waxhaw (Cuthbertson HS) caught 61 passes last season to lead the SoCon. Colombo finished with 590 receiving yards and five touchdowns, collecting first-team all-conference honors. He also returned punts, finishing fifth in the league in average return yards (7.9).
🔹 Mari Adams (Davidson)
The senior from Shelby (Crest HS) enjoyed back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing campaigns in 2023 and 2024. He finished with 1,231 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago. Adams entered the transfer portal initially after head coach Scott Abell took the Rice job. But he opted to stay with the Wildcats and new coach Saj Thakkar.
More Lindy’s FCS Notes
- No North Carolina teams made Lindy’s preseason FCS Top 25. Western Carolina finished second in the SoCon a season ago. But Lindy’s puts the Catamounts fourth in its preseason SoCon rankings behind defending champion Mercer, East Tennessee State and Chattanooga.
- North Carolina Central is picked to finish second in the MEAC behind defending champion South Carolina State. “Michael Vick (Norfolk State) and his former Philadelphia Eagles teammate DeSean Jackson (Delaware State) add some fresh excitement to a league that had just two teams with winning records last season. Those programs – South Carolina State (9-3, 5-0) and North Carolina Central (8-3, 4-1) – again figure to be the hunted.”
- Lindy’s picks Elon to finish eighth in the 14-team Coastal Athletic Conference, which bid farewell to Delaware and Richmond in the off-season. Campbell is tabbed 12th, while North Carolina A&T has been predicted to finish 14th.
- Davidson was a perennial contender in the Pioneer League under Abell. The Wildcats have been picked to finish fourth in Thakkar’s first season at the helm, behind Drake, San Diego and Dayton.
- Gardner-Webb won the Big South Conference in 2022 and the Big South/OVC Football Association in 2023. Lindy’s predicts a fifth-place finish for the Runnin’ Bulldogs this season behind Southeast Missouri, UT Martin, Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State.
- Lindy’s starts defending FCS champion North Dakota State at No. 1 in its preseason top 25. Montana State ranks second, followed by South Dakota State, UC Davis and South Dakota in the top five.
- The Lindy’s national magazine also featured a page of D2 and D3 coverage but no mentions of teams or players from North Carolina.
