NATCHITOCHES -- Sixteen Northwestern State standouts, including career rushing leader Tony Taylor, career tackles king Andre Carron and 1993 Outland Trophy semifinalist Marcus Spears, were included Wednesday on the Southland Conference's All-Decade Football Team from the 1990s.

The all-decade teams in football are chosen as part of the Southland's 50th anniversary commemoration. The 1990s team spans 1990-99 and 10 member institutions. Only McNeese State, with 23 of the 89 players chosen, had more on the 1990s roster than did Northwestern.

Other Demon greats on the squad included defensive backs Mike Green, Adrian Hardy, Jermaine Jones, Tony Joe Maranto, Keith Thibodeaux and Kenny Wright, all who played professionally. Green and Wright, also high school teammates at Ruston, both played nine seasons in the NFL.

Along with Spears, NSU offensive standouts honored were running backs Clarence Matthews and Ronnie Powell, center Will Broussard and receiver Patrick Palmer.

Some of the Demons' best-ever defenders were listed, including defensive ends Robert Daniel and Greg Necaise and linebacker Edward Moses.

Broussard, Daniel, Green, Jones, Powell, Taylor and Wright were among the stars for the 1998 Northwestern squad that rolled into the FCS playoff semifinals after claiming a second-straight Southland championship.

Spears, a Baton Rouge native who played football only as a senior at Belaire High School, developed under head coach Sam Goodwin into one of the most accomplished players in any position in Southland history. A three-year first-team All-Southland offensive tackle from 1991-93, Spears was a two-year first-team All-American, and as a senior collected a vast array of honors before becoming a second-round NFL Draft pick to launch an 11-year pro career.

He became only the second player in FCS (then Division I-AA) history, joining Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley in 1986, to be elected to the Football Writers Association of America All-America Team. Spears made the FWAA's 1993 team alongside stars from Nebraska, Southern Cal and Notre Dame, among others. That also made him one of the nine semifinalists for the 1993 Outland Trophy, presented to the top lineman (offense or defense) in college football.

Taylor, a Pineville product, was a three-year first-team All-Southland running back in 1998-2000, leading the league in rushing as a sophomore and junior before skipping his senior season, after graduating, to begin his pro career. His 3,997 rushing yards included 20 career 100-yard games and the single-season school mark of 1,507 yards in his All-America season of 2000, before he earned a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay.

Carron, nicknamed "The Terminator" for his fierce hitting as a mobile linebacker, collected 521 tackles, a career record for the conference as well as the Demons, from 1988-91. He was the 1991 runner-up, by three points to Weber State quarterback Jamie Martin, for the Walter Payton Trophy presented to the top player in the FCS. Partly as a result of his showing, the sponsoring Sports Network initiated the Buck Buchanan Award the following year for the nation's top defensive player. Carron was the 1991 Football Gazette FCS Defensive Player of the Year and a consensus All-America.

Jones was the 1998 Buchanan Award runner-up, and Southland Player of the Year, after a spectacular year as a cornerback and punt returner, scoring four defensive touchdowns and running back a pair of punts for scores.

Palmer (1996) and Taylor were Southland Offensive Players of the Year while Carron (1991) and Maranto (1997) won the league's Defensive Player of the Year honor. Powell was the 1997 Southland Newcomer of the Year.

Daniel, Hardy, Matthews and Spears all played in postseason college all-star games following their senior seasons, with Matthews, who has the top two all-purpose yardage totals in school history in 1994 (1,795 in 1994, 2,277 in 1995) becoming the first and only Demon to reach the Hula Bowl.

Broussard was a 1999 National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete. He, Green and Spears were two-time All-America recipients. Carron, Daniel, Hardy, Jones, Maranto, Matthews, Necaise, and Taylor won All-America honors in their final seasons at NSU.

Moses, a New Iberia native with 421 career tackles, ranks second in school history in that stat while twice earning All-Southland first-team honors in 1992-93.

To best assess the candidate pool for the all-decade team, the Southland Conference developed a metric that analyzed numerous elements of a student-athlete's performance and value within the league at the time. Most notably, the conference honored "real-time" factors such as all-conference selection by coaches and a player's statistical performance among his peers at the time. Further, other components of selection including a player's effort toward helping his team win a championship or finish near the top of the conference, whether he earned individual honors from the league, if he participated in postseason bowls, and if he was drafted by or participated in the NFL.

The Southland Conference will continue to recognize all-decade teams throughout the 2013 season.

1990 Players of the Decade by Teams
McNeese State (23)
Donnie Ashley, KR
Charles Ayro, LB
Blair Bradley, DL
Zack Bronson, DB
Jesse Burton, RB
Ronald Cherry, OL
Tarius Davis, DB
Henry Fields, RB
Terry Irving, LB
Kerry Joseph, QB
Eric Kidd, DL
Shonz LaFrenz, K
Vincent Landrun, LB
Jose Larios, K
Pat Matthews, TE
Pat Neck, P
Reggie Nelson, OL
Mike Pierce, DB
Kavika Pittman, DL
Eric Roberts, K
Blayne Rush, OL
Dana Scott, DL
Kip Texada, DB

Northwestern State (16)
Will Broussard, OL
Andre Carron, LB
Robert Daniel, DL
Mike Green, DB
Adrian Hardy, DB
Jermaine Jones, DB
Tony Maranto, DB
Clarence Matthews, RB
Edward Moses, LB
Greg Necaise, DL
Patrick Palmer, WR
Ronnie Powell, RB
Marcus Spears, OL
Tony Taylor, RB
Keith Thibodeaux, DB
Kenny Wright, DB

Louisiana-Monroe (12)
Jeff Blackshear, OL
Vincent Brisby, WR
Robert Cobb, QB
James Folston, DL
Reggie Lawson, OL
Doug Pederson, QB
Roosevelt Potts, RB
Cisco Richard, RB
Greg Robinson, RB
Matt Shepherd, DL
Irving Spikes, RB
Vic Zordan, OL

Troy (8)
Kerry Jenkins, OL
Al Lucas, DL
Pratt Lyons, DL
Michael Moore, OL
Anthony Rabb, LB
Cleve Roberts, OL
Eric Sloan, DB
Marcus Spriggs, DL

Stephen F. Austin (8)
Chris Jefferson, WR
Lee Kirk, OL
Mikhael Ricks, WR
Terrance Shaw, DB
Chad Stanley, P
Jeremiah Trotter, LB
Cedric Walker, DB
Joe Wylie, OL

Texas State (8)
Claude Mathis, RB
Adam Means, OL
Gilbert Price, QB
Reggie Rivers, RB
Spicer Sigman, OL
Ervin Thomas, OL
Darrick Vaughn, DB
Donald Wilkerson, RB

Sam Houston State (7)
Michael Bankston, DL
Chris Chaloupka, QB
Matt Dominguez, WR
Ryan Klaus, P
Victor McKnight, OL
Kevin Pesak, TE
Murphy Yates, OL

North Texas (3)
Byron Gross, LB
Mitch Maher, QB
Erric Pegram, RB

Nicholls (2)
Adam Diel, K
Darryl Pounds, DB

Jacksonville State (2)
Joey Hamilton, WR
Montressa Kirby, QB