Three conference honorees. A 1,000-2,000 season. That’s just the beginning.
Maybe 2023 was the First Coast’s year of the quarterback in college football.
The just-completed college season was a banner year for quarterbacks as the Times-Union releases its annual First Coast All-FBS team, highlighting top Jacksonville-area performers across the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The list includes multiple all-conference selections as well as a national champion in former Bartram Trail linebacker Micah Pollard, who saw part-time action in Michigan’s run to a College Football Playoff triumph.
The star position this year: quarterback.
Leading the way was former Mandarin Mr. Football winner Carson Beck, who threw for nearly 4,000 yards on a Bulldogs team that fell short of a third consecutive national title but did win the Orange Bowl with a 13-1 record.
Meanwhile, Boston College’s Thomas Castellanos (Ware County) passed for 2,248 yards and ran for 1,113, South Alabama’s Carter Bradley (Providence) was an honorable mention All-Sun Belt pick and Western Kentucky’s Austin Reed (St. Augustine) was honorable mention Conference USA.
Navy’s Tai Lavatai, Wake Forest’s Santino Marucci and Nebraska’s Jeff Sims also saw starting duty in an active year for area signal-callers.
In all, 157 players from the area appeared on FBS rosters in 2023, a drop of more than 15 percent from last year’s 188. That decrease reflects multiple factors: transfers to FCS and Division II, an unusually large NFL Draft class in the spring and particularly the expiration of many athletes’ eligibility in the aftermath of the COVID-19 bonus year.
The SEC moved to the top of the list for most Jacksonville-area players on its roster with 31, displacing the American Athletic Conference after the latest round of realignment. Next were the ACC (24), American Athletic (19),…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/meet-times-unions-2023-fbs-100350863.html
Author : The Florida Times-Union
Publish date : 2024-01-16 10:03:50
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