DALLAS (July 15, 2019) - FIU football's Sage Lewis was tabbed the Conference USA Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, as the senior headlined the honorees for this season's preseason awards, as voted on by the league's 14 head coaches.
The Preseason Defensive POY honor is the first for FIU since Richard Leonard was awarded the title before the start of the 2015 season. Lewis was also named to the C-USA Preseason All-Conference Team as well, joined by teammate and return man Maurice Alexander.
After making the move to middle linebacker in 2018, Lewis broke the school record in total tackles (132) and solos (83) while ranking first in the league for both of those categories.