Wingate's Marquise Fleming wins 2024 Gene Upshaw Award

Defensive end Marquise Fleming of Wingate has been named the winner of the 2024 Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year Award. Fleming, who was the runner-up in the voting for the 2023 award, is the first Bulldog to earn the honor. Grand Valley State offensive tackle Gabe Brown was this year’s runner-up followed by Slippery Rock defensive end Todd Hill. The Gene Upshaw Award, open to senior linemen on both sides of the ball, is voted on by the nation’s NCAA Division II sports information directors.

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A 2023 Harlon Hill Trophy finalist and 2024 nominee, Fleming led Wingate back to the DII football championship tournament in 2024 as the SAC defensive player of the year. Fleming is college football’s active leader in both career sacks (38.0) and tackles for loss (71.5) among his 219 career total tackles, and he ranks fourth in DII football with 19.5 tackles for loss this season. His nine career forced fumbles are also fifth among active players in all divisions. Wingate’s defense ranked atop DII in third-down conversion and red zone defense, third in total defense and first downs defense, and sixth in scoring defense.

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Fleming has had a highly decorated career, including the 2023 and 2024 D2CCA Super Region Two defensive player of the year awards, two SAC defensive player of the year honors, and he was a consensus all-American in 2023 after leading DII in sacks. 

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The award is named in honor of the late Gene Upshaw, who was not only an All-Pro lineman for the Oakland Raiders, but later served as the executive director of the NFL Players Association for 25 years. Upshaw, a former standout offensive lineman at Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M Kingsville), was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987 in his first year of eligibility. The award is presented annually by the Manheim Touchdown Club.

The Gene Upshaw Award, by the numbers

• Nathan Baker of Pittsburg State was the first winner of the award in 2004. 
• Since the establishment of the award in 2004, Fleming is the tenth defensive end to win the honor. He is the first winner of the award to come out of Super Region Two and the South Atlantic Conference.
• Grand Valley State should just be called Lineman U. The Lakers have the most Gene Upshaw award winners with four. Ferris State is right behind, winning three in a row from 2019 to 2022. 
• Mike McFadden of Grand Valley State (2005-06) and Darius Allen of CSU Pueblo (2013-14) are the only repeat winners of the award.
• One is the loneliest number for offensive guards. Only one — Garth Heikkinen of Minnesota Duluth in 2012 — has won. Two centers have nabbed the honors and seven offensive tackles have claimed the award.

* = now a DI FCS program.