ASU lands six on squad
From staff reports
PHILADELPHIA — Led by 2008 Walter Payton Award winner Armanti Edwards and ’08 Buck Buchanan Award finalist Mark LeGree, six Appalachian State football players earned 2009 preseason all-America recognition from The Sports Network on Thursday.
First-team selections Edwards and LeGree are joined on the preseason all-America squads by second-team honorees Mario Acitelli, Cortez Gilbert and Jacque Roman and third-team selection D.J. Smith.
A senior quarterback, Edwards threw for 2,902 yards, rushed for 941 more and was responsible for a Southern Conference-record 41 touchdowns (30 passing, 11 rushing) last season en route to winning the Payton Award (presented to the nation’s top FCS player) in a landslide.
He ranked second nationally with a 170.19 pass-efficiency rating, seventh with 3,843 yards of total offense and 58th in rushing. Additionally, he threw only two interceptions in 224 regular-season pass attempts, with a school-record string of 176 passes without an interception.
LeGree, a junior defensive back, led the nation with 10 interceptions in 2008. His 10 interceptions broke the 45-year-old school record of eight (Larry Harbin, 1963) and tied the SoCon record that hadn’t been matched in 33 seasons. In addition, he ranked second in the SoCon and 10th nationally with 17 passes defended and finished fifth on the squad with 58 tackles, including three for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.
LeGree placed third in voting for the Buck Buchanan Award, which honors the nation’s top FCS defensive player.
Roman, a senior linebacker, racked up 130 total tackles (9.3 per game) as a junior, good for 28th nationally and second in the SoCon. He led the Mountaineers with eight double-digit tackle performances and four fumble recoveries and added three sacks, two interceptions, five quarterback hurries and two pass break-ups.
A senior defensive back, Gilbert led the SoCon and tied for second nationally with 19 passes defended (17 pass break-ups and two interceptions) a season ago.
Additionally, he ranked fourth on the team and led all ASU defensive backs with 72 tackles and recorded the squad’s only blocked kick of the season.
Acitelli, a senior offensive lineman, was a leader on an offensive line that helped Appalachian to top-10 national rankings in scoring, rushing, pass efficiency and total offense in 2008. After playing left guard as a junior, he is expected to move back to the left tackle position that he has occupied for much of his collegiate career in '09.
Smith, a junior linebacker, ranked second on the squad behind Roman with 123 tackles last year. His 7.5 tackles for loss were second on the squad while his seven pass break-ups ranked second among ASU's non-defensive backs in '08.
Appalachian's six overall honorees were the second-most in the nation, behind only Weber State's seven. ASU, Weber, Villanova and Richmond led the way with two first-teamers apiece.
Coming off an 11-3 season and its fourth-straight SoCon championship, ASU opens the 2009 campaign on Sept. 5 at former conference rival East Carolina. Kickoff is set for noon and the contest will be televised regionally on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).
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