Dec. 10, 2010
NEW HAVEN, CT - Texas A&M senior Von Miller, the 2010 Butkus Award winner, was named to the first-team Walter Camp All-America football team on Thursday. The nation's oldest All-America team, the 121st edition, was announced live this evening on The Home Depot College Football Awards Show on ESPN.
Miller, from DeSoto, Texas, was a 2009 first-team All-American by a couple of organizations and was a second-team Walter Camp All-America selection in 2009. Miller enters the 2010 bowl season as the Big 12 sack leader for the second straight year with 9.5 sacks in 2010. Miller was a unanimous All-Big 12 selection at linebacker by The Associated press. Miller posted 14.5 tackles for losses, batted down six passes, forced three fumbles, recovered two fumbles and made one interception.
Top-ranked and undefeated Auburn had the most players (3) selected to the First Team, including Cam Newton who earlier this evening was named the 2010 Walter Camp Player of the Year. Oklahoma State and TCU each had two players chosen to the First Team. In all, 23 different schools from eight conferences were represented on the All-America First Team.
The Walter Camp All-America team is selected by the head coaches and sports information directors of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools and certified by the accounting and auditing firm Marcum, LLP. Walter Camp Football Foundation President Alphonse Paolillo, Jr. was pleased with the voting participation.
"We had 80 percent of the Bowl Subdivision schools participate in this year's voting," Paolillo said. "We are very appreciative of the continuing cooperation of the coaches and sports information directors in our annual effort to honor the nation's most outstanding college players."
Newton, a 6-foot, 5-inch junior from College Park, Ga., has passed for
2,589 yards and 28 touchdowns for the 13-0 Tigers, who will play Oregon
(13-0) in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 11. Newton's
188.16 pass efficiency rating ranks first in the nation. Newton also ranks 15th in the nation in rushing (108.4 yards per game), totaling an SEC quarterback record 1,409 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Joining Newton in the offensive backfield are two explosive running backs - sophomore LaMichael James (Oregon) and senior Kendall Hunter (Oklahoma State). James, who ranks first in the nation in rushing with 1,736 yards
(144.7 yards per game) and second in scoring with 132 points for the
undefeated and second-ranked Ducks.  Hunter has been a steady force for
the Cowboys, rushing for 1,542 yards and 15 touchdowns.
The wide receivers - Justin Blackmon (Oklahoma State) and Ryan Broyles (Oklahoma - hail from the Big 12 Conference. Blackmon has caught 102 passes for 1,665 yards and 18 touchdowns, while Broyles has 118 receptions for
1,452 yards and 13 touchdowns. The tight end, also representing the Big 12, is Michael Egnew (Missouri).
A quartet of seniors - Gabe Carimi (Wisconsin), Rodney Hudson (Florida State), Lee Ziemba (Auburn) and Nate Solder (Colorado) comprise the offensive interior, while senior Jake Kirkpatrick (TCU) is the offensive center.
Junior Danny Hrapmann (Southern Miss), who has connected on 26-of-30 field goals for the Golden Eagles, is the placekicker.
Leading the defensive unit is the nation's leading tackler, linebacker Luke Kuechly (Boston College). Kuechly has totaled 171 tackles on the season, an average of 14.2 per game. Joining Kuechly in the middle are seniors Greg Jones (Michigan State) and Von Miller (Texas A&M), who were both Walter Camp Second Team All-Americans a year ago.
On the interior, the nation's top two sack and tackles-for-loss leaders - Ryan Kerrigan (Purdue) and Da'Quan Bowers (Clemson) - are joined by Nick Fairley (Auburn) and Adrian Clayborn (Iowa).
In the defensive secondary, sophomore Jayron Hosley (Virginia Tech), who leads the nation with eight interceptions, is joined by seniors Tejay Johnson (TCU) and Prince Amukamara (Nebraska) and junior Patrick Peterson (LSU).
The punter is senior Chas Henry (Florida), who leads the nation with a 46.4
yard-per-punt average.  There are two kick returners on the First Team due
to a tie in the voting.  Utah's Shaky Smithson, who has returned two punts
for scores this season, is joined by Toledo's Eric Page, who has run back three kickoff returns for touchdowns.
The 2010 Walter Camp Player of the Year and members of the All-America team will be honored at the organization's national awards banquet on Saturday, January 15, 2011 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven. In addition, the Foundation will honor three individuals - NFL Hall-of-Famer Chuck Bednarik (Pennsylvania) and former Walter Camp All-Americans and NFL All-Pros Tedy Bruschi (Arizona) and Will Shields (Nebraska) - with major awards.
The Foundation is offering a "Holiday Ticket Promotion" for the National Awards Dinner. Buy two tickets for $400 (you save $150) before December 31.
Please call (203) 288-CAMP (288-2267) for more information.
Walter Camp, "The Father of American football," first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp - a former Yale University athlete and football coach - is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation - a New Haven-based all-volunteer group - was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.
The Walter Camp Football Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. Visit http://www.ncfaa.org.