The godfather of college football magazines Phil Steele has spoken, which can only mean one thing: a new season is right around the corner.
And, given the crap that’s gone on the past few months, that’s a very good thing.
As he’s done the past few years, Steele has released his first-team... and second-team... and third-team... and fourth-team All-Americans ahead of the release of his highly-anticipated magazine (re: The College Football Bible). And, as ofttimes is the case, Steele includes a couple of surprises that will no doubt generate discussion.
Arguably his biggest surprise comes at the game’s glamour position. Stanford’s Andrew Luck will enter the ’11 season with as much hype as any quarterback in the last decade -- if not longer -- but could muster no better than a second-team nod from Steele, ceding first-team honors to Oklahoma’s Landry Jones.
One place where there should be little argument is at the wide receiver position, with the first team filled with a trio of the most talented receivers the game has seen in quite some time: Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma’s Ryan Broyles and South Carolina’s Alshon Jeffery. Speaking of loaded positions, linebacker is one as well: Vontaze Burfict (Arizona State), Luke Kuechly (Boston College), Travis Lewis (Oklahoma) and Tank Carder (TCU) all garnered first-team honors, meaning players like Manti Te’o (Notre Dame), Dont’a Hightower (Alabama) and Nigel Bradham (Florida State) were relegated to second-team or lower.
Conference-wise, the SEC, as expected, leads the way with the most first-round (6), second-round (6) and overall selections (12) in Steele’s first two rounds. The Pac-12 is next with 10 players in the first two rounds, followed by the Big 12 and ACC with nine apiece, followed by the Big Ten’s six.
Conference USA (3) and the MAC (1), which do not receive automatic BcS berths, have more players named to Steele’s first- and second-teams than does the Big East (0), which does receive an automatic BcS bid.
As far as individual schools goes, Alabama, Oregon and Oklahoma each had three first-team selections apiece.
To peruse the entire list, you can click HERE.