With the college football season just over two months away Athlon Sports released its annual list of preseason All-Americans.
Three Florida Gators were named to the second and third teams. Duke Dawson was named a second team All-American at cornerback and Eddy Pineiro was named the second team kicker. Punter Johnny Townsend was selected on the third team.
Dawson returns in 2017 for his senior season. He has played in 37 games during his career at Florida with 48 tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss, eight pass breakups and two interceptions.
Pineiro took the college football world by storm with incredible feats of distance kicking on YouTube before he even arrived at Florida. Last season he converted 21-of-25 (84%) of his field goal attempts and all 32 of his PAT tries. Pineiro’s season long came against South Carolina, drilling a pair of 54-yard field goals. He made 11 field goals over 40-yards, the most for a UF kicker since 1996. Pineiro also handled kickoff duties for the Gators and led the country with a 64.8 yard-per-kick average. His 48 touchbacks ranked 15th in the country.
Johnny Townsend led the country with a 47.9 yard-per-punt average in in 2016. He was a Ray Guy semifinalist with 29 punts over 50 yards and 27 punts that pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard line.
The SEC led the way with 26 players making it on the three teams, followed by the ACC (23), Big Ten (19), Pac 12 (17) and Big 12 (13). Alabama led the way for schools with seven players named.