ASU picked to repeat
From staff reports

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Southern Conference’s football coaches have picked Appalachian State to win its fifth-consecutive conference championship, the SoCon office announced on Monday.

Appalachian received 8-of-9 first-place votes in the SoCon's annual coaches’ preseason poll. The Mountaineers are followed by Wofford, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern (which received the other first-place vote), The Citadel and Samford (which tied for sixth), Western Carolina and Chattanooga.

Following the lead of the league’s coaches on Monday, the media members who cover Southern Conference football selected Appalachian State as the overwhelming favorite to capture the conference championship in 2009.

The Mountaineers (429 points) received 46-of-48 first-place votes in the balloting, placing a wide gap between themselves and second place Elon (360).

Elon, the league’s third-place finisher in 2008 at 6-2, was selected to finish second, and the Phoenix grabbed one first-place vote.

Following Elon in third was Wofford (326), a team which has reached the FCS playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

Georgia Southern (275) received the final first-place vote and was picked to finish fourth by the media voters.

Furman (260) and Samford (194) were fifth and sixth, respectively, while The Citadel (165), Western Carolina (94) and Chattanooga (57) completed the rankings.

In addition to the poll, the SoCon coaches also selected their annual preseason all-conference teams and ASU was the most-represented squad with 16 players pulling in 17 total selections, including eight first-team honorees. Leading the way are the SoCon’s preseason Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback Armanti Edwards and preseason Defensive Player of the Year, linebacker Jacque Roman. Their selections were no surprise, as the duo swept the coaches’ postseason player-of-the-year following last season.

Joining Edwards and Roman on the first team are offensive linemen Mario Acitelli, Brett Irvin and Daniel Kilgore. Defensively, defensive lineman Jabari Fletcher and defensive backs Mark LeGree and Cortez Gilbert were named to the first team.

Appalachian State’s second-team honorees are running back Devon Moore, tight end Ben Jorden, wide receivers Brian Quick and CoCo Hillary, defensive lineman Anthony Williams, linebacker D.J. Smith, defensive back Ed Gainey, place kicker Jason Vitaris and Hillary again as a return specialist.

Edwards on Unitas list
Edwards is the lone NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS — formerly Division I-AA) representative among the 21 players nominated for the 2009 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation announced last Thursday. The Unitas Golden Arm Award is presented annually to college football’s top senior quarterback.

Edwards racked up 2,902 passing yards, 941 rushing yards and a SoCon-record 41 touchdowns responsible for (30 passing, 11 rushing) as a junior last season. He ranked second nationally with a 170.19 pass-efficiency rating, seventh with 3,843 yards of total offense and 58th in rushing. He threw only two interceptions in 224 regular-season pass attempts, with a school-record string of 176 passes without an interception that spanned over two months - eight full games and parts of two others.

Thanks to his outstanding junior season, Edwards was a consensus first-team FCS All-American and won the 2008 Walter Payton Award (nation's top FCS player) in a landslide, becoming just the sixth underclassman in the 22-year history of the Payton Award to receive the honor. He enters his final collegiate season as ASU's all-time leader in total offense (10,783 yards), touchdown passes (62) and touchdowns responsible for (109).

The Unitas Golden Arm Award is named after the man that many refer to as the finest quarterback ever, former University of Louisville and Baltimore Colts great Johnny Unitas. The winner of the award is recognized not only for athletic accomplishments, but also for character, citizenship, scholastic achievement and leadership qualities. This year's winner will be announced in November.

Twenty-one of the award's previous 22 winners have come from the six conferences that comprise the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) or BCS member Notre Dame (the only exception being Fresno State's David Carr in 2001). Seven of the 22 winners - Gino Torretta (Miami (Fla.) - 1992), Charlie Ward (Florida State - 1993), Danny Wuerffel (Florida - 1996), Chris Weinke (Florida State - 2000), Carson Palmer (Southern California - 2002), Jason White (Oklahoma - 2004) and Matt Leinart (Southern California - 2005) - took home the Heisman in the same year. Texas Tech's Graham Harrell won the Golden Arm Award last season.

Other notable nominees for this year's award include 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow of Florida and a pair of in-state contenders - East Carolina's Patrick Pinkney and Wake Forest's Riley Skinner.