Bucknell's Pechin Voted as AFCA Second Team All-American
12/21/2018 11:00:00 AM | Football
WACO, Texas – Bucknell's Alex Pechin was voted to the AFCA Coaches' All-America Second Team, the American Football Coaches Association announced Friday.Â
Pechin becomes Bucknell's 11th AFCA All-American in program history. He is the third Bison to capture this award under head coach Joe Susan, joining linebacker Evan Byers (2014) and offensive lineman Julién Davenport (2016).
This is Pechin's fifth career All-America award. The decorated punter was previously selected to the 2018 STATS and Hero Sports First Teams, the 2018 AP Second Team and the 2017 STATS Third Team. He is Bucknell's first specialist to garner All-America laurels from the AFCA and AP.
Pechin's awards haul in the 2018 off-season has been impressive. In addition to his four All-America awards, he captured All-Patriot League First Team accolades for the third time and All-ECAC First Team laurels for the second time. As successful in the classroom as he is on the field, he became the Patriot League's fifth back-to-back Scholar-Athlete of the Year in conference history, was a repeat finalist for the STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award and made the Academic All-Patriot League Team for the second-straight season.Â
One of the finest punters in Bucknell history, Pechin stood first in the FCS in punts (81) and punting yards (3,606) and fourth in punting average (44.5) at the end of the 2018 regular season. The only punter in the FCS's top five with at least 65 punts at that time, he broke the school record in punts while posting the second-best punting average in the Bucknell annals. Of his 81 punts, a career-best 29 sailed for at least 50 yards while 28 landed inside the 20.
Pechin owns the Bison record in career punting average (43.7) and the program's top-three single-season averages of 45.1 (2017), 44.5 (2018) and 42.1 (2015); he also booted the third- (71) and fifth- (70) longest punts in school history over the course of the 2018 campaign. After capturing STATS Third Team All-America accolades in 2017 on the strength of his 45.1 punting average, which ranked third in the FCS, he was named to 2018 Preseason All-America First Teams by STATS, Phil Steele, Hero Sports, College Sports Madness and FreeAgentFootball.com.
A senior Biomedical Engineering/Management for Engineers major, Pechin boasts a 3.93 grade point average. This fall, he conducted gene therapy research for a start-up company he worked at over the summer. As part of his intensive five-year degree program at Bucknell, he has completed multiple projects; his senior design project involves creating ultrasound simulation for surgical training. He is also a regular volunteer at Riverwoods, a senior living community in Lewisburg, and a football team peer tutor.
The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. What makes these teams so special is that they are the only ones chosen exclusively by the men who know the players the best — the coaches themselves.
