Two UofL Players Named to Phil Steele’s Preseason All-American Teams

Earlier, the very skilled football writer Phil Steele made public his choices for the Preseason All-American Teams.  As I quickly hit CTRL+F and typed in “Louisville” before even reading the article, I quickly found that two Louisville players made the list.  One of which is Louisville’s very talented safety Hakeem Smith, who made Steele’s third-team list.  Smith will be a senior this year and looks to add on to his impressive career and 240+ tackles.  The other name I came across was Teddy Bridgewater, who made Steele’s fourth team squad.  Bridgewater is obviously Louisville’s multi-talented QB who made a name for himself last year and who, despite his denial of a Heisman Campaign, still looks to be a strong (pun intended) candidate to win it this season.

At first glance, I will say I was kind of shocked to see Bridgewater at 4th team, but some of the players ahead of him include 2012 Heisman-winner Johnny Manziel (1st team), and national champion AJ McCarron (3rd team).  The one I didn’t really like was Braxton Miller as a second-team player.  I realize that the Buckeyes were undefeated last year and that he will improve, but statistically, Bridgewater was just better than Miller last season.  Bridgewater threw for around 1700 more yards than Miller, as well as 12 more TDs and 3 more picks.  Ohio State does have more talent around Miller to help him than Louisville has to help Bridgewater, but Bridgewater is talented enough to keep producing successful plays no matter who he’s with.

The following is a list of Steele’s teams, and here’s a link to a Yahoo post on this.

OFFENSE

DEFENSE

SPECIAL TEAMS