Georgia quartet earns All-American honors for AP, Football Writers
Four Georgia players were named to All-American teams on Monday. Both the Associated Press and the Football Writers Association of America announced their respective teams, each featuring tight end Brock Bowers and defensive back Malaki Starks on their first-team. Center Sedrick Van Pran was on the second-team for both while fellow offensive lineman Tate Ratledge was a second-team selection by the AP.
Bowers, who took home the hardware for the Mackey Award and was a finalist for the Lombardi Award, hauled in a team-high 56 passes for 714 yards and six touchdowns despite missing three games due to an ankle injury. He underwent tightrope procedure midseason and returned to the field just 26 days later.
Meanwhile, Van Pran, a Rimington Trophy finalist for the sport’s best center, helped set the tone on an offensive line that allowed the fewest sacks in the SEC for the second straight season (averaging the fewest for the third straight) and paved the way for a pair of running backs to top the 600-yard mark. Both Kendall Milton (12) and Daijun Edwards (11) found the end zone at least 10 times, good for top-5 in the league among running backs. Ratledge played alongside Van Pran on the offensive line, a unit that’s up for the Joe Moore Award.
On the other side of the ball, it’s Starks, who was a finalist for both the Nagurski Trophy and the Thorpe Award, who gets recognized. He helped hold down the back end of a Georgia secondary that finished the season ranked first in the SEC for passing defense. With 51 tackles in 13 games, he finished top-5 on the team.
Georgia’s three players selected in total – first and second team combined – by the FWAA was tied for the most of any team in the country. Other programs to place three on the two FWAA squads included Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame and Washington. All three of the Hawkeyes were first-team picks, leaving Georgia tied with LSU and Notre Dame for second in the “First Team by School” category.
FULL AP ALL AMERICAN TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT
FULL FWAA ALL AMERICAN TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT
Bowers, Starks and Van Pran have been consistent presences on the postseason honors front. All three were up for their individual position awards last Friday – one which Bowers won – and Van Pran won the SEC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy last week. Likewise, Ratledge was included on both the AP and Coaches All-SEC squads.
Minus Starks, just a sophomore this past season, the other three have NFL Draft decisions to make before too long. After missing out on the College Football Playoffs, Georgia will take on Florida State in the Capital One Orange Bowl, a battle between the first two teams on the outside looking in of the four-team playoff.
