{"id":70320,"date":"2024-12-13T17:08:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T22:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=70320"},"modified":"2025-09-18T11:27:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:27:28","slug":"70320-the-acc-is-getting-plenty-of-recognition-from-all-american-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/13\/70320-the-acc-is-getting-plenty-of-recognition-from-all-american-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"The ACC Is Getting Plenty of Recognition From All-American Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we begin the All-American announcements over the next week, the ACC is getting plenty of recognition from the first two teams named.<\/p>\n

Before we get to the names, here is a quick primer. There are five All-American teams certified by the National Football Foundation. The Walter Camp Foundation, the AFCA (Coaches\u2019 Association), the Football Writers Association (FWAA), the Associated Press, and The Sporting News. Irrespective of any other outlet that posts their internal thought process, a player must appear as an All-American on one of the five certified by the NFF to be eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame when their time comes. If they are not, regardless of any other accolades, they cannot be in the Hall.<\/p>\n

The ACC All-Americans<\/h2>\n

Walter Camp All-American Team<\/h3>\n

His is the oldest of all All-American teams, going back to 1889. This year\u2019s team was announced late Thursday night. The ACC players that made it are:<\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Team Offense<\/h3>\n

Cam Ward<\/a>-quarterback, Miami; The fifth senior for the Miami Hurricanes is in the top five in nearly every passing and offensive category in the country. Thursday night, he was also named winner of the Davey O\u2019Brien National Quarterback Award<\/a>, given by that committee to the best quarterback in the country.<\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Team Defense<\/h3>\n

Nohl Williams<\/a>-defensive back, Cal; Williams is a newcomer to the ACC with the Cal Bears playing their first season in the conference. The redshirt senior had nine pass breakups and seven interceptions with 16 passes defended in 12 games for Cal.<\/p>\n

Alex Mastromanno<\/a>-punter, Florida State; Some All-American teams list the punter as a specialist, (the AFCA below), and some list the punter as part of the defense. The redshirt senior got the recognition he had deserved in any punter competition. Florida State\u2019s offense was shaky at best throughout the season, and Mastromanno was the team\u2019s best weapon, flipping the field with amazing strength and accuracy. He led the country with a 49.27 yards per punt average. His long was a 55-yarder. He also dropped 30% of his punts inside the opponents’ 20-yard line with only one kick returned.<\/p>\n

2nd<\/sup> Team Offense<\/h3>\n

Willie Lampkin-offensive line, North Carolina<\/p>\n

Omarion Hampton-running back, North Carolina<\/p>\n

2nd<\/sup> Team Defense<\/h3>\n

Donovan Ezeiruaku-defensive lineman, Boston College<\/p>\n

Antwaun Powell-Ryland-defensive lineman, Virginia Tech<\/p>\n

The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA)<\/h3>\n

This All-American team was announced Friday afternoon. Here are the ACC players who made it.<\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Team Offense<\/h3>\n

Cam Ward-quarterback, Miami; \u00a0see Walter Camp notes above<\/p>\n

Xavier Restrepo<\/a>-wide receiver, Miami; It makes sense that with Ward having the passing stats that he did throughout the season, one of his receivers would have a great season. Restrepo because the all-time leading receiver in Hurricanes history with 182 receptions and 2,573 receiving yards.<\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Team Defense<\/h3>\n

Donovan Ezeiruaku<\/a>-defensive lineman, Boston College; The senior defensive end led the nation in sacks with 16.5, (15 were solo). He was also second in the country with 20.5 tackles for loss.<\/p>\n

Nohl Willians-defensive back, Cal; see Walter Camp notes above<\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Team Specialists<\/h3>\n

Alex Mastromanno-punter, Florida State; See Walter Camp notes above.<\/p>\n

Ryan Fitzgerald-placekicker, Florida State; There were games when Fitzgerald was the only offense for FSU. He was a perfect 13 for 13 on field goals on the season. That made him one of only two kickers in the country not miss a field goal all year in at least 10 attempts.<\/p>\n

No ACC players made second-team offense<\/strong> for the Walter Camp All-American Team.<\/p>\n

2nd<\/sup> Team Defense<\/h3>\n

Antwaun Powell-Ryalnd-defensive lineman, Virginia Tech<\/p>\n

2nd<\/sup> Team Specialists<\/h3>\n

Brashard Smith-All Purpose, SMU<\/p>\n

The Associate Press will announce its All-American team on Monday, December 16th. The FWAA will announce its team on Tuesday, December 17. And the Sporting News will announce its team on Wednesday, December 18th. Following the completion of the five certified All-American teams, the NCAA will issue a list of the consensus All-Americans. A player who makes three of the five certified teams is labeled as a Consensus All-American. If someone makes all five they are a Unanimous All-American.<\/p>\n

\"ACC
Photo courtesy: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we begin the All-American announcements over the next week, the ACC is getting plenty of recognition from the first two teams named. Before we get to the names, here is a quick primer. There are five All-American teams certified by the National Football Foundation. The Walter Camp Foundation, the AFCA (Coaches\u2019 Association), the Football […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":65920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,35636],"tags":[34533,465,3851,38,94,100,34531],"class_list":["post-70320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","category-florida-state-seminoles","tag-afca-all-american-teams","tag-boston-college-eagles","tag-cal-bears","tag-florida-state-seminoles","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-virginia-tech-hokies","tag-walter-camp-all-american-team"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70323,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70320\/revisions\/70323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}