The Alabama Crimson Tide placed four players on the Football Coaches All-American team. Alabama sophomore running back Mark Ingram, senior left guard Mike Johnson, junior linebacker Rolando McClain and senior cornerback Javier Arenas made the team. You can read more about that below.

First, since some of you complained about the Erin Andrews photographs, here is a Tracy Wolfson photo.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

29 November 2008: CBS Sideline Reporter Tracy Wolfson at the 2008 Auburn v Alabama Iron Bowl. Photo via Newscom

Now for links to some interesting stories around the SEC:
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Here is the official release about the Crimson Tide’s All-Americans:
Alabama Places Four on AFCA All-American Team
TUSCALOOSA – The Alabama football team placed four players on the 2009 American Football Coaches Association All-American team, the AFCA announced on Thursday.

Alabama sophomore running back Mark Ingram, senior left guard Mike Johnson, junior linebacker Rolando McClain and senior cornerback Javier Arenas were named to the 25-man squad.

The 2009 season marks the second straight year the Crimson Tide has placed four players on the AFCA All-American team. It is also the ninth time since the inception of the AFCA All-American Team in 1945 that one school has had four or more players on one All-American team. Alabama (2008 and 2009), Notre Dame (1966 and 1990) and Southern California (1967 and 2005) are the only schools to accomplish that feat twice.

Ingram is a finalist for three of college football’s major awards this season, including the Walter Camp Player of the Year, Maxwell Trophy and Doak Walker Award. In 12 games, he has 221 rushing attempts for 1,429 yards and 12 touchdowns. He is second in the SEC and 11th nationally with 119.08 rushing yards per game this season. He has added 28 catches for 246 yards and three touchdowns and has accounted for 1,675 all-purpose yards this season, an average of 139.6 yards per game.

Johnson has anchored an Alabama offensive line that has paved the way for the 13th best rushing attack in the nation this season with 212.92 yards per game. Alabama has rushed for 200 or more yards eight times this season and has accumulated 400 or more yards of total offense seven times. Johnson was named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week following the Tide’s win over Mississippi State. He has played in a school-record tying 52 games during his UA career.

McClain is a finalist for the Butkus Award and Lott IMPACT Award this season. In 12 games, he leads Alabama with 96 tackles, including a team-best 48 solo stops. He has also added 12 tackles for loss (-57), four sacks (-36), two interceptions (21 yards), two pass breakups, one forced fumble and 11 quarterback pressures. He is a three-time National Defense Player of the Week (Kentucky, South Carolina and Auburn) and a two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Week (Kentucky and Auburn) winner. Against Kentucky, McClain recorded 12 tackles and was responsible for three of the Tide’s four takeaways that resulted in 17 points in the 38-20 win.

A semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, Arenas is a play maker on defense and special teams. He is second in the team with 64 tackles and ranks second on the team with five sacks from his cornerback position. Arenas shares the team lead with 12 tackles for loss this season and had added four pass breakups and two interceptions. He was named the SEC Player of the Week following his performance in the win over LSU. He is also the SEC career leader in punt return yards with 1,725 career yards. He needs 37 yards to break Wes Welker’s NCAA record of 1,761 career punt return yards.

Alabama accounted for four of the seven SEC players named to the 2009 AFCA All-American Team. The other SEC players included Tennessee defensive back Eric Berry, Florida defensive Joe Haden and Georgia kicker Drew Butler.

5 thoughts on “Alabama football: All-Americans & other links”

  1. Wolfson was looking really good at the Final Four. Smoking hot. I’d go Tiger Woods on that.

    Auburn? Who? You mean that bunch that tried to stall and delay the UA team bus last week? They don’t do things like that. They’re classy. They got standards. They don’t define themselves by beating UA. They don’t have a win at all costs mentality. They are good people.

    And I want to buy that bridge!

    UA 31. UF 28

    Leigh Tiffin gets his Daniel Moore moment with time expiring. See you in Pasadena.

  2. I’ll be the first to say that I’m glad the SEC has finally given a true response to intentional secondary violations, although it stings a little that it was Auburn who they made an example out of. (and spare me the bs about Bama’s secondary violations being “accidental”. Your freakin’ head coach does not “accidentally” bump into a dozen recruits in a 5 day period while “evaluating” at their school. I got a bridge to sell you if you think otherwise.) There’s no point in having these rules if they’re just going to be flaunted, which every SEC school with the possible exception of Vandy has done on a regular basis. It’s nice to see that Slive has got a pair.

    Alex, you probably do actually believe that AU caused the traffic jam last week. Did you know that Chizik can also control the weather, and was responsble for the Kennedy assasination and the Lindbergh kidnapping?

  3. We got a crew in Crimson town working on this right now — any recruiting violations no matter now subtle will be reported.

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