Junior running back Jala Coad was named the Empire 8 Conference Offensive Player of the Week in a release by the conference office on Monday afternoon.  

Coad carried the ball 45 times for a career-high 240 yards en route to eclipsing 2,000 yards rushing for his career as the Golden Eagles won their fourth straight Courage Bowl at St. John Fisher, 34-7, Saturday night. He also added three touchdowns on the ground to help the Golden Eagles improve to 3-1 on the year. 
 
Coad now has 2,106 career rushing yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground.  His 45 rushing attempts were a career-high and fell just two shy of the school-record set by Adam Webster back in 2002.
 
He leads the Empire 8 with seven total touchdowns this season and he leads the league and ranks ninth nationally with an average of 139.3 yards rushing per contest. 

The Golden Eagles, who are currently receiving votes in both the D3football.com and AFCA National Polls, return to the gridiron on Saturday as they travel to nationally ranked No. 19 SUNY Cortland for a key Empire 8 Conference matchup at 12 p.m. The last time these two teams met in 2019, the Golden Eagles came away with a 32-26 overtime victory to essentially lock up their third straight Empire 8 Conference Championship.