Thursday, December 03, 2009

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.