Seven players, including Pat Seesholtz, who received the Paul Hoernemann Award as the league’s top defensive lineman, were named to All-OAC teams. The Cardinals, 8-2 overall, finished third in the OAC at 7-2.

“Being a rookie in the league, a first-year head coach, and being voted coach of the year by your peers, it’s humbling,” Doup said. “It’s exciting, but it’s not a tribute to me. It’s to my coaches and the players who bought into what I was trying to do. I just sort of guided it through.”

Seesholtz, a junior from Bremen (Fairfield Union High School), led the OAC in sacks at the end of the regular season, averaging 1.0 a game, and sat second in tackles for loss with 1.7 an outing. The junior tallied 41 tackles, including 10.5 sacks this season.

Joining Seesholtz on the defensive first team was senior cornerback Anthony Korpieski, a four-time All-OAC pick. Korpieski, from Westerville (Olentangy), led the OAC with six interceptions, three of which he returned for touchdowns. The cornerback made 30 tackles, 26 unassisted, in 2012 and finished his career as Otterbein’s all-time leader in interceptions with 14.

Cardinals named to the second team were Trey Fairchild, Zack Grieves, and Chad Pepper.

Fairchild, a senior wide receiver from Dublin (Coffman), played most of the second half of the season hampered by an injury. The standout, who received the Ed Sherman Award as the league’s top receiver in 2011, caught 28 balls for 430 yards and four touchdowns this season.

Grieves, a junior defensive lineman from Huron, made 13 tackles for loss, including seven sacks, to finish in the top five in both categories in the OAC. He led the Cardinals with 66 tackles, including 51 unassisted.

Pepper, a senior linebacker from Westerville (Olentangy), rounded out the list of Cardinals named to the second team. He tallied 48 tackles, including 33 unassisted and 3.5 sacks, this season.

Otterbein also placed two players on the honorable mention team in Aaron Kingcade, a senior quarterback from Worthington (Kilbourne), and Steven Carpenter, a junior wide receiver from Dublin (Coffman).

Kingcade, a first team All-OAC selection at punter in 2011, took over the starting quarterback duties this season and helped lead the Cardinals to a 5-0 start before suffering an injury at Heidelberg Oct. 13. Over six games, he completed 63 of 103 pass attempts for 841 yards and five touchdowns, and also rushed for seven touchdowns.

Carpenter made 32 receptions for 502 yards and three touchdowns.