Alabama Crimson Tide

Mandel's All-America teams: Which outstanding RB didn't make the cut?

Published Dec. 11, 2015 9:00 a.m. ET

Stewart Mandel

The problem with All-America teams is there's never enough room to honor everyone you would have liked. And anyone you leave off, that school's fans accuse you of disrespecting him. Believe me, I have ample respect for your favorite star player -- it's just that I can't have seven first-team linebackers.

The position where that dilemma proved most vexing this season is at running back, where there are five guys -- Florida State's Dalvin Cook, Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott, LSU's Leonard Fournette, Alabama's Derrick Henry and Stanford's Christian McCaffrey -- whom everyone would presume to be All-Americans. Unfortunately, I have only four spots on the first or second team. Elliott, who would likely be a first-teamer almost any other year, was the odd man out. My colleague Bruce Feldman agrees.

I also assumed going in I'd have Elliott's teammate, Joey Bosa, on the first team, because he's widely considered the best defensive end in the country. But I could not justify giving him one of those two coveted spots at the expense of either the national sack leader (Penn State's Carl Nassib) and/or tackles-for-loss leader (Clemson's Shaq Lawson) when Bosa himself notched just five sacks.

At least Bosa still found a home on the second team. Some big names (and future NFL multimillionaires) missed the cut altogether. That's not because I hate their teams or because they had bad seasons. They, in fact, had great seasons. There were just others who had slightly better ones.

FIRST TEAM

POSITION	PLAYER	TEAM
QB	Deshaun Watson	Clemson
RB	Derrick Henry	Alabama
RB	Christian McCaffrey	Stanford
WR	Corey Coleman	Baylor
WR	Josh Doctson	TCU
TE	Hunter Henry	Arkansas
T	Taylor Decker	Ohio State
G	Joshua Garnett	Stanford
C	Jack Allen	Michigan State
G	Jordan Walsh	Iowa
T	Spencer Drango	Baylor
DE	Shaq Lawson	Clemson
DT	Malik McDowell	Michigan State
DT	A'Shawn Robinson	Alabama
DE	Carl Nassib	Penn State
LB	Kentrell Brothers	Missouri
LB	Tyler Matakevich	Temple
LB	Jaylon Smith	Notre Dame
CB	Desmond King	Iowa
S	Jeremy Cash	Duke
S	Jayron Kearse	Clemson
CB	Shawun Lurry	NIU
K	Ka'imi Fairbairn	UCLA
P	Tom Hackett	Utah
AP	Adoree Jackson	USC
Ret.	Morgan Burns	Kansas State

SECOND TEAM

POSITION	PLAYER	TEAM
QB	Baker Mayfield	Oklahoma
RB	Dalvin Cook	Florida State
RB	Leonard Fournette	LSU
WR	Will Fuller	Notre Dame
WR	JuJu Smith-Schuster	USC
TE	Jake Butt	Michigan
OL	Vadal Alexander	LSU
OL	Nila Kasitati	Oklahoma
OL	Ryan Kelly	Alabama
OL	Ronnie Stanley	Notre Dame
OL	Sebastian Tretola	Arkansas
DL	Joey Bosa	Ohio State
DL	DeForest Buckner	Oregon
DL	Myles Garrett	Texas A&M
DL	Emmanuel Ogbah	Oklahoma State
LB	Blake Martinez	Stanford
LB	Reggie Ragland	Alabama
LB	Anthony Walker	Northwestern
DB	Vonn Bell	Ohio State
DB	William Jackson III	Houston
DB	Jourdan Lewis	Michigan
DB	Jalen Tabor	Florida
K	Daniel Carlson	Auburn
P	Drew Kaser	Texas A&M
AP	Jabrill Peppers	Michigan
Ret.	Evan Berry	Tennessee