Onyeali named Freshman All-American by FWAA
Arizona State University defensive end Junior Onyeali, a true freshman from Denver, Colorado, has been named to the 2010 Freshman All-American Team by The Football Writers Association of America, it was announced Monday.
The Football Writers Association of America announced its 10th annual Freshman All-America Team on Monday morning during the association's annual awards breakfast. Each of the 11 NCAA Division I Bowl Subdivision Conferences is represented on the team.
Onyeali was key to a Sun Devil defense that was second in the league and 17th in the nation in rushing defense (120.2 yards per game). He led the Sun Devils and all Pac-10 freshmen with 6.5 sacks for a loss of 61 yards. Of his 18 stops this season, 11.5 were for loss.
Last month Onyeali was selected as the Pacific-10 Conference Defensive Freshman Of The Year by the league's coaches. Arizona State claimed back-to-back honors as linebacker Vontaze Burfict was honored last season as the Pac-10 Defensive Freshman of the Year.
In addition to this latest honor, Onyeali also was named to the Rivals.com 2010 Freshman All-American squad and to the CollegeFootballNews.com First-Team Freshman All-American Team.
The Big 12 and Southeastern conferences each placed five players on the team, followed by the Atlantic Coast with four, the Pacific-10 with three, and the Big Ten, Big East, Mountain West and Conference USA with two players each.
Florida State's first-year coach, Jimbo Fisher, taking over for the legendary Bobby Bowden, claimed the first-year coaching honors when his Seminoles finished with a 10-4 record after beating South Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
The team and coach are selected by a 11-person panel of nationally-prominent writers led by Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Both true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were considered for the team and are so noted.
The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of more than 1,200 men and women who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tigerfwaa@aol.com or 972-713-6198.
The complete FWAA Freshman All-American Team can be found at this link:
http://www.sportswriters.net/fwaa/news/2010/allamerica110110.html