Tate on top | by Pat

Congrats are in order for Golden Tate, who was just named to the AFCA All-America Team. He's the first ND player to make the list since Shane Walton and the first offensive player since Aaron Taylor back in 1993. The last wide receiver to make the list was Rocket back in 1990.

Tate is also the only junior to make the offensive team. If Tate returns for his senior year, he could become only the 5th player in Notre Dame history to make the AFCA All-America 1st Team twice. Quick quiz: name the other four. (hint. Tate would be the first receiver to do so)

Here's the AFCA press release and list of the players who made the team.

2009 AFCA Coaches’ All-America Team

Offense

Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	School
WR	Golden Tate	5-11	195	Jr.	Notre Dame
WR	Mardy Gilyard	6-1	187	Sr.	Cincinnati
TE	Dennis Pitta	6-5	247	Sr.	BYU
OL	Mike Johnson	6-6	305	Sr.	Alabama
OL	Russell Okung	6-5	300	Sr.	Oklahoma St.
C	Chris Hall	6-4	295	Sr.	Texas
OL	Trent Williams	6-5	315	Sr.	Oklahoma
OL	Mike Iupati	6-6	330	Sr.	Idaho
QB	Colt McCoy	6-2	210	Sr.	Texas
RB	Mark Ingram	5-10	215	So.	Alabama
RB	Toby Gerhart	6-1	235	Sr.	Stanford

Defense

Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	School
DL	Ndamukong Suh	6-4	300	Sr.	Nebraska
DL	Jerry Hughes	6-3	257	Sr.	TCU
DL	Jared Odrick	6-5	296	Sr.	Penn St.
DL	Derrick Morgan	6-4	272	Jr.	Georgia Tech
DL	Brian Price	6-2	300	Jr.	UCLA
LB	Rolando McClain	6-4	258	Jr.	Alabama
LB	Greg Jones	6-1	228	Jr.	Michigan St.
DB	Eric Berry*	5-11	195	Jr.	Tennessee
DB	Joe Haden	5-11	190	Jr.	Florida
DB	Javier Arenas	5-9	198	Sr.	Alabama
DB	Earl Thomas	5-10	197	So.	Texas

Specialists

Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	School
P	Drew Butler	6-2	203	So.	Georgia
PK	Kai Forbath	6-0	192	Jr.	UCLA
AP	C.J. Spiller	5-11	195	Sr.	Clemson

With the rest of the All-America lists coming out in the next week or so, Tate is probably a good bet to lock up Consensus All-America honors, joining Jeff Samardzija.

Meanwhile, Clausen was named one of 10 finalists for the Manning Award. As the Manning Award prides itself on being the only quarterback award that takes a candidate's bowl performance into account, it's probably a safe guess that Clausen won't win this one. Still he should be in contention for some of the other quarterback awards as well as possible inclusion on a few All-America teams.