SEC Football by the Numbers: Consensus All-Americans
Eight SEC players are members of the 2023 NCAA FBS consensus All-American team.
The NCAA currently compiles a definitive All-American squad for its annual record book from the choices of five selectors – the American Football Coaches Association, Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, Sporting News and Walter Camp Football Foundation.
Players become consensus All-Americans by earning first-team recognition from at least three of the selectors. It’s also possible for a player to be a consensus All-American without making three teams if not enough players to fill the consensus-team slots meet that threshold, and that happened twice with SEC players this season.
SEC Football by the Numbers looks at the SEC’s consensus All-Americans:
1 Missouri running back has been a consensus All-American – Cody Schrader this season.
1 All-American selector kept LSU QB Jayden Daniels, Georgia DB Malaki Starks and Alabama LB Dallas Turner from achieving unanimous All-American status this season. Daniels and Turner were not first-team selections for Walter Camp, and Starks wasn’t on The Sporting News first team.
2 SEC players earned consensus All-American recognition this season without earning first-team recognition from at least three of the five selectors – Alabama CB Kool-Aid McKinstry and Missouri RB Cody Schrader. McKinstry was a first-team pick of the AP and Sporting News. Iowa’s Cooper DeJean was a unanimous All-American, and Georgia’s Malaki Starks and Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts were first-team picks for four selectors in the secondary. None of the six other defensive backs receiving first-team recognition made more than two teams, so the two that made two – McKinstry and West Virginia’s Beanie Bishop tied for the final consensus spot in the defensive backfield. At running back, Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II was a unanimous selection with Schrader the only other running back picked as a first-teamer by more than one selector, with the AP and Sporting News tabbing the Missouri ball-carrier.
2 SEC players are unanimous All-Americans for the 2023 season – Georgia TE Brock Bowers and LSU WR Malik Nabers. Unanimous All-Americans are first-team choices of all five of the selectors used by the NCAA to assemble the consensus squad.
2 SEC players were tabbed as first-team All-Americans by at least one of the major selectors without earning consensus recognition in 2023 – Kentucky WR Barion Brown was the first-team kick returner for The Sporting News and Alabama CB Terrion Arnold was a first-team defensive back for the AP, which picked two cornerbacks, two safeties and one defensive back.
4 SEC players were selected as third-team All-Americans by The Associated Press this season. While each of the five consensus selectors chooses a second team, only the AP has a third team. SEC players on the third unit in 2023 were Missouri OT Javon Foster, Alabama K Will Reichard, LSU WR Brian Thomas Jr. and Mississippi State LB Nathaniel Watson.
6 SEC players designated as tight ends have been consensus All-Americans, including Georgia’s Brock Bowers this season. Bowers follows Ole Miss’ Rufus French in 1998, Kentucky’s James Whalen in 1999, Arkansas’ Hunter Henry in 2015, Texas A&M’s Jace Sternberger in 2018 and Florida’s Kyle Pitts in 2020.
6 LSU players have been selected as consensus All-Americans with the designation of WR, SE or E (for wide receiver, split end and end, respectively), including Malik Nabers in 2023. Nabers follows Gaynell Tinsley in 1935 and 1936, Ken Kavanaugh in 1939, Wendell Davis in 1987, Josh Reed in 2001 and Ja’Marr Chase in 2019.
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8 SEC players earned consensus All-American recognition for the 2023 season – Alabama CB Kool-Aid McKinstry and LB Dallas Turner, Georgia TE Brock Bowers and S Malaki Starks, LSU QB Jayden Daniels and WR Malik Nabers, Missouri RB Cody Schrader and Texas A&M LB Edgerrin Cooper. The SEC’s 2023 consensus All-American lineup is two players larger than the 2022 total of six. Since 2017, when only two SEC players were consensus All-Americans, the league has produced 12 in 2018, nine in 2019 and 2020 and eight in 2021.
12 LSU players have been unanimous All-American selections, including WR Malik Nabers in 2023. The Tigers’ other unanimous All-Americans have been E Gaynell Tinsley in 1936, B Billy Cannon in 1959, G Roy Winston in 1961, B Jerry Stovall in 1962, C Nacho Albergamo in 1987, DL Glenn Dorsey in 2007, DB Patrick Peterson in 2010, DB Morris Claiborne in 2011 and QB Joe Burrow and WR Ja’Marr Chase in 2019.
12 Alabama players designated as linebackers have been selected as consensus All-Americans, including Dallas Turner in 2023. Turner follows Woodrow Lowe in 1974, Cornelius Bennett in 1986, Derrick Thomas in 1988, Keith McCants in 1989, DeMeco Ryans in 2005, Rolando McClain in 2009, Dont’a Hightower in 2011, C.J. Mosley in 2012 and 2013, Reggie Ragland in 2015, Reuben Foster in 2016 and Will Anderson Jr. in 2021 and 2022. Other Alabama players have been chosen as consensus All-Americans primarily because of their play as linebackers, but when the consensus All-American team consisted of 11 players before the advent of free substitution, they were designated by their offensive position.
13 Alabama players designated as defensive backs, cornerbacks or safeties have been consensus All-Americans, including CB Kool-Aid McKinstry this season. McKinstry follows Bobby Johns in 1967, Tommy Wilcox in 1981, Antonio Langham in 1993, Kevin Jackson in 1996, Javier Arenas in 2009, Mark Barron in 2011, Dee Milliner in 2012, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in 2013, Landon Collins in 2014, Minkah Fitzpatrick in 2016 and 2017, Deionte Thompson in 2018 and Patrick Surtain II in 2020. Other Alabama players have been chosen as consensus All-Americans in part because of their play as defensive backs, but when the consensus All-American team consisted of 11 players before the advent of free substitution, they were designated by their offensive position.
14 SEC players have been the consensus All-American quarterback, with LSU’s Jayden Daniels earning that honor for 2023. The SEC quarterbacks who preceded Daniels as consensus All-Americans included Auburn’s Pat Sullivan in 1971, LSU’s Bert Jones in 1972, Florida’s Danny Wuerffel in 1996, Tennessee’s Peyton Manning in 1997, Kentucky’s Tim Couch in 1998, Florida’s Rex Grossman in 2001, Florida’s Tim Tebow in 2007, Auburn’s Cam Newton in 2010, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel in 2012, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa in 2018, LSU’s Joe Burrow in 2019, Alabama’s Mac Jones in 2020 and Alabama’s Bryce Young in 2021. Florida QB Steve Spurrier was a consensus All-American in 1966 when the team featured four players designated only as backs (so no quarterbacks or more than one quarterback could have been selected). Other consensus All-Americans from the SEC, such as Ole Miss’ Charlie Conerly in 1947, have played the equivalent of the QB position in college but been designated as halfbacks or tailbacks in a single-wing-type offense and were All-American selections as backs.
14 Georgia players have been unanimous All-American selections, including TE Brock Bowers in 2023. The Bulldogs’ other unanimous All-Americans have been B Frank Sinkwich in 1942, B Charley Trippi in 1946, G Royce Smith in 1971, RB Herschel Walker in 1980, 1981 and 1982, RB Garrison Hearst in 1992, P Drew Butler in 2009, LB Jarvis Jones in 2012, LB Roquan Smith in 2017, OT Andrew Thomas in 2019, DL Jordan Davis and LB Nakobe Dean in 2021 and DL Jordan Carter and DB Christopher Smith in 2022. Overall, Georgia players have been selected as consensus All-Americans 41 times.
16 SEC players were tabbed as second-team All-Americans by the consensus selectors in 2023. Each of the consensus selectors has a second team. The SEC players chosen as second-teamers included Georgia C Sedrick Van Pran by five selectors, Alabama OT J.C. Latham by four selectors, Missouri CB Kris Abrams-Draine and RB Cody Schrader and Vanderbilt P Matt Hayball by three selectors, Alabama CB Terrion Arnold, CB Kool-Aid McKinstry and S Caleb Downs, Missouri WR Luther Burden III and Texas A&M LB Edgerrin Cooper by two selectors, and Alabama K Will Reichard and LB Dallas Turner, Georgia G Tate Ratledge and S Malaki Starks, LSU QB Jayden Daniels and Missouri OT Javon Foster by one selector. Cooper, Daniels, McKinstry, Schrader, Starks and Turner were consensus All-Americans.
60 Consecutive seasons with at least one consensus All-American from the SEC. The conference was shut out in 1963. The SEC, which played its first football season in 1933, also didn’t have any consensus All-Americans in 1943 (when only five league members fielded teams because of World War II), 1948, 1949 and 1955.
86 Consensus All-American selections for Alabama after CB Kool-Aid McKinstry and LB Dallas Turner earned the honor for the 2023 season. Alabama has more than twice as many consensus All-American selections than any other SEC program. Tennessee 41, Georgia and LSU have had 41 apiece, Florida and Texas A&M 34 each, Auburn 31, Arkansas 25, Kentucky and Missouri 14 apiece, Ole Miss 13, Vanderbilt seven, South Carolina four and Mississippi State three. While SEC members, Texas A&M has had 11 consensus All-American, Arkansas eight and Missouri and South Carolina two apiece. South Carolina has gone the longest in the league without a consensus All-American, with DL Jadeveon Clowney in 2012 the Gamecocks’ most recent selection.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.