All-Americans 2019

[Lobot]

Ahmad Gardner has landed on the Athletic's Freshman All-American 1st team.

[red_n_black_attack]

Ahmad was also on the CBSSports All-America True Freshman list. These are well deserved honors for Ahmad. He had 58 passes thrown his way, 22 completions, 3 interceptions (pick six against UCF and ECU) and none of the completions in his direction went for TDs. This is quite impressive considering he was not a starter to begin the season and worked his tail off this year to move up the depth chart.

An interesting aside to these All-American Freshman Teams:
A quick count of the recruiting rankings showed that 3 were 5-star ranked recruits, 9 were 4-star ranked recruits, 13 were 3-star ranked recruits, and 1 was unranked (the kicker from Oklahoma) Some of this is need, meaning the 5-star QB's sitting behind 5 star starters at Clemson didn't see the field enough to be All-Americans. I don't see why more of these 4 and 5 star players don't pick programs where they can play immediately. Whether it be at Vandy, Rutgers, Northwestern or other perennial P5 bottom feeders or G5 schools. The cream always rises to the top and their physical skills will be as important as on field performance to move up draft boards. Same for basketball, where 1-2 players can really make a difference at any school. Great players make others around them better.

[bearcatjd]

Awesome award!

[longtimefan]

Pro Football Focus also had praise Ahmad.

"True freshman Ahmad Gardner was one of the top cornerbacks of 2019 — his 89.5 PFF coverage grade ranked 10th at the position and earned him a spot on PFF’s All-Freshman Team. Gardner showed tremendous ball skills in coverage and was rarely beat on a route break for an open target. Just 27.8% of his targets in coverage were an instance where the receiver had a step or more of separation, which is the 10th lowest rate in the FBS. Overall, Gardner allowed just 40.7% of his targets in coverage to be caught, while surrendering no touchdowns and adding on nine combined pass breakups and interceptions."

https://www.pff.com/news/college-foo...rs-2019-season

[Gilenerm]

Congrats to Ahmad! He was outstanding all year. He became the shutdown corner around the time that Kobe was having troubles in East Carolina. Was a tremendous help to the secondary! Well Deserved!

[coach]

He's the first frosh AA i can recall we've had in football.

[Bearcat Chris]

He's the first frosh AA i can recall we've had in football.

Walter Stewart back in 2008 or so????

B.C.