London, ON - The OUA handed out their year end major awards for Football on Thursday morning in a virtual recognition ceremony. 

Mustangs DL Deionte Knight was named the winner of the J.P. Metras Awards as Lineman of the Year while rookie QB Evan Hillock was named the Norm Marshall Award winner as Rookie of the Year.

Knight was among the league leaders in sacks, reeling in the quarterback six times on the season (2nd in OUA). Knight finished the season with eight solo and 17 assisted tackles and played an integral role for the conference's stingiest defence for yards allowed (271.7 yards per game).

"I'd like to thank my family, teammates and coaches. 2021 has been a special year but I feel like we are just getting started," said Knight.

Knight becomes the ninth Mustang to take home the defensive honour and the first since 2016 (Sean Jamieson).

"Deionte deserves it, he's had a great work ethic here and he is a leader on our team," said Mustangs Head Coach Greg Marshall "He's gotten better every single week this year and I am really really proud of what Deionte has accomplished this year."

Hillock took the Mustangs starting job in week 3 and made an immediate impact with the team's receiving corps and lead the Mustangs to four straight wins to close out the campaign and a pair of playoff victories.

Hillock threw for an average of 264 yards per game, completing 64.3% of his passes and registering a 175.6 efficiency. The latter set him atop the conference and proved that he was among the OUA's best. 

"This award is truly a team award not just an individual award to me, without my teammates I wouldn't be able to receive this," said Hillock "There are so many great quarterbacks here at Western that push me every day to get better and I want to thank them as well,"

Hillock is the sixth Mustangs to get the award, following DB Kojo Odoom who won the award in 2019.

"He definitely changed things around for us, he created a spark and has never gotten rattled," said Marshall of his rookie QB "He just gets the ball out of his hands very very quickly and there aren't too many quarterbacks, as freshman, that can come in and do what Evan's done in our offence."

The Mustangs are focussed on Saturdays matchup with the Queens Gaels in the 113th Yates Cup. Kickoff is set for 1pm from Richardson Memorial Stadium in Kingston. Fans can watch the action on CHCH tv and streamed on CBC Sports.ca, CBC Gem, and OUA.tv.