Senior guard Joshua Garnett became the ninth unanimous All-American in Stanford history after he was named to the American Football Coaches’ Association (AFCA) All-America first team on Wednesday, while sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey was named a consensus All-American when he was also awarded AFCA first-team honors.
Garnett joins Bobby Grayson (1935), Bill McColl (1951), Ken Margerum (1980), John Elway (1982), Toby Gerhart (2009), David DeCastro (2011), Zach Ertz (2012) and David Yankey (2013) as the Stanford program’s all-time unanimous All-Americans.
Garnett became the third Stanford guard in five years to be named for the honor and is expected to be selected in the top two rounds of the upcoming NFL Draft.
The senior was a significant part of a Stanford rushing attack that ranked third in the Pac-12 and produced the second-best rushing season in Stanford history. With Garnett blocking and sometimes pulling from his left guard position on Stanford’s power runs, the big lineman was deadly at both the line of scrimmage and in space, even once producing a highlight against Washington where he pancaked Washington safety JoJo McIntosh as he blocked in space on a screen for Daniel Marx.
With Garnett as its centerpiece, the Stanford offensive line was also named a finalist for the Joe Moore Award, given each year to the nation’s top offensive line. Garnett was also the winner of this year’s Outland Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top interior lineman, and the Morris Trophy, given to the Pac-12’s best offensive lineman, as voted by the conference’s defensive linemen.
McCaffrey was the player that had the most to gain from Garnett’s stellar season, as the sophomore broke Barry Sanders’ single-season all-purpose yards record with 3,497 yards, is the nation’s second-leading rusher with 1,847 yards on the ground this season and is 24 yards away from becoming Stanford’s all-time single-season leading rusher.
He was named first-team All-America by Sporting News and the AFCA as a running back, by the Associated Press as an all-purpose player and by the Football Writers’ Association of America as a kick returner. The Walter Camp Football Foundation named him to its second team as both a running back and returner.
In recognition of his achievements, McCaffrey was also a finalist for the Doak Walker, Heisman, Maxwell and Walter Camp Awards and was the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. He also won the Paul Hornung Award, given each year to the most versatile player in the nation.
In addition to being the nation’s second-leading rusher, McCaffrey is also second in the country in kickoff return yards and is second among running backs in the nation in receiving yards. He is also the only player in the country to lead his team in both rushing and receiving.
The AFCA teams were the fifth and final All-America teams recognized by the NCAA to be named, following the Associated Press (AP), Sporting News, the Walter Camp Football Foundation and the Football Writers’ Association of America (FWAA). In order to be named a unanimous All-American, a player needs to be named to all five first teams, while consensus All-America honors are awarded to players who are named to a majority of the first teams.
Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu.