Lamar Jackson 1st Team AP All-American

Mark BlankenbakerDecember 12, 2016

University of Louisville football’s Lamar Jackson continues to rack up honors as the 2016 season comes to a close.

After being named the youngest player in college football history to win the 2016 Heisman Trophy last Saturday, Jackson added to his trophy case by being named a first-team Associated Press All-American on Monday afternoon.

Jackson, Louisville’s first player to win college football’s most coveted individual award, was the youngest player to secure the honor at just 19 years and 337 days old. He moves into the slot previously held by Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, who was named the award’s recipient at 19 years and 342 days old in 2013.

Jackson continues a recent trend of breakout stars winning the Heisman. He is the sixth player to win the award as either a redshirt freshman or sophomore, all since 2007, joining Manziel (redshirt freshman), Jameis Winston (redshirt freshman), Mark Ingram (sophomore), Sam Bradford (sophomore), and Tim Tebow (sophomore).

Last week, Jackson earned the Walter Camp Player of the Year distinction on Thursday, and then, later that day, was selected as the Maxwell Award College Player of the Year at the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show in Atlanta.

Guiding the nation’s top scoring offense, Jackson finished the regular season holding ACC and school records with 51 touchdowns responsible for (30 passing, 21 rushing), rushing yards by a quarterback with 1,538, and rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 21. He tied an ACC mark with eight touchdowns in the season-opening win over Charlotte, including matching a school mark with six touchdown passes.

Named the ACC Player and Offensive Player of the Year, Jackson shattered Louisville’s single-season record for rushing yards in a season, and his eight 100-yard rushing games also broke a school mark.

Jackson has passed for 3,390 yards and 30 touchdowns and is two scores shy of breaking Teddy Bridgewater’s single-season mark. Jackson totaled a pair of 400-yard passing games this season, including a career-best 417 yards in a win on the road at Marshall on Sept. 24, and 411 yards in a victory at Syracuse on Sept. 9.

He amassed an ACC-record 610 total yards in a win over Syracuse, a game in which he came within one rushing yard of becoming the first player in FBS history to run for 400 yards and pass for 200 yards in the same game.

The Cardinals return to action on Dec. 31 in the 2016 Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl against LSU in Orlando, Fla., at 11 a.m.