Three All-American awards were enough to put Ka’Deem Carey over the top. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE
ALBUQUERQUE — For a while on Friday morning, nobody seemed quite sure about Ka’Deem Carey’s status as a consensus All-American.
The Football Writers Association of America announced their All-America team on Friday, the last of the five postseason teams officially recognized by the NCAA. The FWAA selected Oregon’s Kenjon Barner and UCLA’s Jonathan Franklin as its first-team running backs.
It has been reported (including in this space) that being mentioned on three of the five official All-America teams qualifies a player to be a consensus All-American. Not quite. What needs to happen is for the top players at the position — one for quarterback, two at running back, two at receiver, etc. — to have more mentions than the others.
Barner led the way with four first-team honors. Carey and Wisconsin’s Montee Ball each had three. Franklin had one. (The total adds up to 11 because the Walter Camp Football Foundation picked three first-team running backs.)
With no second-team selection to break the tie between Carey and Ball, who gets to be a consensus All-American with Barner?
Arizona checked and got a reply from the NCAA. Both of them do.
So, it’s officially official. Carey is the 11th consensus All-American in school history.
Here is the breakdown of the running backs on the five official All-America teams:
| Player | AFCA | WC | SN | AP | FWAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montee Ball | x | x | x | ||
| Kenjon Barner | x | x | x | x | |
| Ka’Deem Carey | x | x | x | ||
| Jonathan Franklin | x |
AFCA = American Football Coaches Association
WC = Walter Camp Football Foundation
SN = The Sporting News
AP = Associated Press
FWAA = Football Writers Association of America