Clayborn AFCA all-American

From the American Football Coaches Association:

OREGON'S LAMICHAEL JAMES AND CLEMSON'S DA'QUAN BOWERS HEADLINE THE 2010 AFCA FBS COACHES' ALL-AMERICA TEAM

WACO, TEX. - Oregon runningback LaMichael James and Clemson defensive lineman Da'Quan Bowers headline the 2010 AFCA?Coaches' All-America Team announced today by the American Football Coaches Association.

The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. What makes these teams so special is that they are the only ones chosen exclusively by the men who know the players the best - the coaches themselves.

James leads the nation in rushing with 1,422 yards, at 6.32 yards per carry, and also leads the nation in scoring, averaging 12 points per game. He has recorded 18 touchdowns and is a finalist for the Doak Walker Award. Bowers leads the nation in sacks with 15.5, and is second in tackles for a loss with 24. He is a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, Lombardi Award and the Nagurski Award, which is a first for a Clemson player to be named a finalist for those three awards in the same year.

2010 AFCA?Coaches' All-America Team

Offense

Pos Name Ht. Wt. Cl. School Coach Hometown (High School)

WR Justin Blackmon 6-1 205 So. Oklahoma St. Mike Gundy Ardmore, Okla. (Plainview)

WR Alshon Jeffery 6-4 233 So. South Carolina Steve Spurrier St. Matthews, S.C. (Calhoun County)

TE Lance Kendricks 6-4 241 Sr. Wisconsin Bret Bielema Milwaukee, Wis. (Rufus King)

OL Lee Ziemba 6-8 319 Sr. Auburn Gene Chizik Rogers, Ark. (Rogers)

OL Rodney Hudson 6-2 282 Sr. Florida St. Jimbo Fisher Mobile, Ala. (B.C. Rain)

C Chase Beeler 6-3 285 Sr. Stanford Jim Harbaugh Jenks, Okla. (Jenks)

OL Stefen Wisniewski 6-3 306 Sr. Penn St. Joe Paterno Bridgeville, Pa. (Pittsburgh Central Catholic)

OL Gabe Carimi 6-7 327 Sr. Wisconsin Bret Bielema Cottage Grove, Wis. (Monona Grove)

QB Cam Newton 6-6 250 Jr. Auburn Gene Chizik College Park, Ga. (Banneker)

RB Kendall Hunter 5-8 200 Sr. Oklahoma St. Mike Gundy Tyler, Texas (John Tyler)

RB LaMichael James 5-9 185 So. Oregon Chip Kelly Texarkana, Texas (Liberty-Eylau)

Defense

Pos Name Ht. Wt. Cl. School Coach Hometown (High School)

DL Da'Quan Bowers 6-4 275 Jr. Clemson Dabo Swinney Bamberg, S.C. (Ehrhardt)

DL Adrian Clayborn 6-4 285 Sr. Iowa Kirk Ferentz St. Louis, Mo. (Webster Groves)

DL Jabaal Sheard 6-4 260 Sr. Pittsburgh Dave Wannstedt Hollywood Hills, Fla. (Hollywood Hills)

DL Ryan Kerrigan 6-4 263 Sr. Purdue Danny Hope Muncie, Ind. (Central)

LB Luke Kuechly 6-3 235 So. Boston College Frank Spaziani Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)

LB Greg Jones* 6-1 240 Sr. Michigan St. Mark Dantonio Cincinnati, Ohio (Archbishop Moeller)

LB Tank Carder 6-3 237 Jr. TCU Gary Patterson Sweeny, Texas (Sweeny)

DB Reggie Rembert 5-8 185 Sr. Air Force Troy Calhoun Flower Mound, Texas (Flower Mound)

DB Patrick Peterson 6-1 222 Jr. LSU Les Miles Pompano Beach, Fla. (Ely)

DB Prince Amukamara 6-1 205 Sr. Nebraska Bo Pelini Glendale, Ariz. (Apollo)

DB Quinton Carter 6-1 200 Sr. Oklahoma Bob Stoops Las Vegas, Nev. (Cheyenne)

Specialists

Pos Name Ht. Wt. Cl. School Coach Hometown (High School)

P Kyle Martens 6-6 200 Jr. Rice David Bailiff Spearfish, S.D. (Spearfish)

PK Will Snyderwine 5-11 190 Jr. Duke David Cutcliffe Potomac, Md. (Landon School)

AP Owen Marecic 6-1 244 Sr. Stanford Jim Harbaugh Tigard, Ore. (Jesuit)

*-2009 All-American

Team Background:?The teams now chosen for each of the AFCA's five?divisions evolved from a single 11-player squad in 1945. From 1945 until 1967, only one team was chosen. From 1967 through 1971, two teams, University Division and College Division, were selected. In 1972, the College Division was split into College I and College II. In 1979, the University Division was split into two teams - Division I-A and Division I-AA. In 1996, the College I and College II teams were renamed Division II?and Division III,?respectively. In 2006, the Division I-A and Division I-AA teams were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)?and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS),?respectively. The AFCA started selecting an NAIA All-America Team in 2006.

Top Team: Oklahoma has had the most players named to the AFCA?Coaches' All-America Team. The Sooners have been represented 61 times by 52 players on the AFCA?team. They are followed by Ohio State (57/43); Notre Dame (56/49); Michigan (54/48); Southern California (54/49); Nebraska (50/45); Texas (45/39); Alabama (43/42); UCLA (34/32) and Miami (Fla.) (33/32).

Top Conference: The Big 12 boasts the most AFCA?Coaches' All-America Team representatives among current conference members with 254, just ahead of the Big Ten at 247 representatives. Following those two are the Southeastern Conference (235), the Pac-10 (174), Atlantic Coast (165), Big East (67), Western Athletic (61), Mountain West (54), Conference USA (51), Sun Belt (40) and Mid-American (29) (Totals include school All-America selections in all divisions).

The 2010 conference-by-conference breakdown:?Big Ten:?6; ACC:?4; Big 12:?4; SEC: 4; Pac-10: 3; MWC: 2; Big East: 1; C-USA: 1.

Class Distinction:?The 2010 AFCA?Coaches' All-America Team is made up of 15 seniors, 6 juniors and 4 sophomores.

Repeat After Me: Ohio State has the most players who have been repeat selections (14 players). The Buckeyes are followed by Oklahoma (9); Notre Dame (7); Southern California (7); Texas (6); Michigan (6); Arkansas (5); Nebraska (5); Florida State (4); Georgia (4) and LSU (4).

Four For Four:?No player has earned AFCA?FBS All-America honors four times, however Texas A&I (now Texas A&M-Kingsville) runningback Johnny Bailey did earn Coaches'?All-America honors four straight years (1986-87-88-89) in AFCA?College Division I (now AFCA Division II).

Three-Timer: Georgia's Herschel Walker is the only three-time AFCA FBS?Coaches' All-American (1980-81-82) in the 63-year history of the team.

Double Duos: Teammates have earned back-to-back Coaches' All-America honors in the same seasons seven times. USC's Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush (2004 and 2005) join Army's Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard (1945 and 1946); Notre Dame's George Connor and Johnny Lujack (1946 and 1947); Michigan State's Bubba Smith and George Webster (1966 and 1967); Ohio State's Jack Tatum and Jim Stillwagon (1969 and 1970); Notre Dame's Ken MacAfee and Ross Browner (1976 and 1977) and Colorado's Joe Garten and Alfred Will¬iams (1989 and 1990).

One Player, Two Schools:?Punter Mark Bounds is the only player to earn Coaches' All-America honors at two different schools. He was named to the AFCA?College Division I?team in 1990 while playing for West Texas A&M. He transferred to Texas Tech after West Texas dropped football and earned I-A All-America honors as a Red Raider in 1991.

Consecutive Years: Notre Dame holds the record for consecutive years with at least one player on the AFCA Coaches' All-America Team at 19 seasons (1963-1981). Neb¬raska had at least one player 12 straight seasons (1978-1989). Michigan (1969-1979), Oklahoma (1971-1981), Sou¬thern Cali¬for¬nia (1972-82) and Miami (Fla.) (1984-1994) are next with 11 straight seasons. Pitts¬burgh placed one player on the AFCA team for 10 straight seasons from 1975-1984.

Super Six: Oklahoma's six selections (Jammal Brown, OL; Jason White, QB; Tommie Harris, DL; Teddy Lehman, LB, Derrick Strait, DB; Antonio Perkins, RS) in 2003 are the most players from one school on the AFCA?Coaches' All-America Team.

Quad Squads: Alabama became the seventh team to place four players on the AFCA?All-America Team in 2008 (OL-Andre Smith, C-Antoine Caldwell, DL-Terrence Cody, DB-Rashad Johnson). The others are: 1945 Army: T-DeWitt Coulter, G-John Green, B-Glenn Davis, B-Doc Blanchard; 1966 Notre Dame: LB-Jim Lynch, FB-Nick Eddy, DT-Pete Duranko, OG-Tom Regner; 1967 Southern California: OT-Ron Yary, LB-Adrian Young, E-Tim Rosso¬vich, HB-O.J. Simpson; 1990 Notre Dame: DB-Todd Lyght, DL-Chris Zorich, LB-Mike Stonebreaker, WR-Raghib Ismail; 1999 Florida State:?WR-Peter Warrick, OL-Jason Whitaker, DL-Corey Simon; PK-Sebastian Janikowski; 2005 USC:?WR- Dwayne Jarrett, OL- Taitusi Lutui, QB- Matt Leinart, RB- Reggie Bush.

Army's four All-Americans in 1945 may be the most impressive showing of the above teams when you take into account the AFCA only selected an 11-player team at that time.