(April 30, 2004) ?C Fordham University senior football players Kevin Eakin and Javarus Dudley are off to National Football League Minicamps this weekend. Eakin is traveling to Miami to participate in the Dolphins camp while Dudley is in Green Bay to participate in the Packers camp.
Dudley, a consensus First Team All-American in 2003, led the NCAA I-AA in receptions with 101 and was second in receiving yards with 1,439. He was only one of two players on any level of the NCAA this year to catch over 100 passes while his 101 receptions and 1,439 yards were school and Patriot League records.
A First Team All-Patriot League selection the past three years, Dudley graduates as the Patriot League??s all-time leading receiver with 295 career receptions for 4,197 yards. He is also the league??s career all-purpose yardage leader with 7,121 yards as well as kickoff return yardage with 2,663 yards.
Eakin, a two-time First Team All-Patriot League pick, will graduate as the school??s all-time leader in passing yards, touchdown passes and completion percentage. He completed 247 of 407 passes for 3,072 yards and 23 touchdowns, setting school single season records for most completions and passing yardage. Eakin led the Patriot League in passing yards/game and was second in total offense.
Over his career, Eakin threw for a school-record 6,112 yards and 45 touchdowns. His completion percentage of 61.5% is a school record and he threw for over 200 yards 19 times in 25 career starts while surpassing the 300-yard mark five times. Eakin??s career record as a starter was 19-6.
Matt Fordyce, a former kicker for the Rams who graduated in 2003, was signed to a free agent contract by the Arizona Cardinals. Fordyce, a four-year starter at punter who also served as the placekicker his senior year, is second on the Fordham all-time punting yards list with 7,456 yards on 200 punts.
Fordyce kicked an NCAA playoff record five field goals in Fordham??s win over Northeastern in the first round of the 2002 NCAA I-AA Playoffs. He finished the 2002 season with a school-record 18 field goals and was named First Team All-Patriot League as both a punter and placekicker and Third Team all-American by Football Gazette. It marked the first time a player has been named first team all-league as both the placekicker and punter in Patriot League history. Fordyce finished the year converting a league-high 18 of his 26 field goals, and he also punted 57 times for 2,183 yards, an average of 38.5 yards/punt, second best in the league. He placed 18 of his 47 punts inside the opponents 20.
