AP All-America Team

[JMU Duke Dog]

Congrats to JMU's Tony LeZotte and Matt Magerko!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051214/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_ap_i_aa_all_america_team

[JMU Duke Dog]

First Team Offense
QB Erik Meyer (Eastern Washington)
RB Nick Hartigan (Brown)
RB Joe Rubin (Portland State)
WR Laurent Robinson (Illinois State)
WR David Ball (New Hampshire)
TE Jonathan Williams (New Hampshire)
OL Paul McQuistan (Weber State)
OL Jeff Bolton (Montana State)
OL Matt Magerko (James Madison)
OL Chad Motte (Georgia Southern)
OL Stafford Davis (Illinois State)

First Team Defense
DL Chris Gocong (Cal Poly)
DL Brent Hawkins (Illinois State)
DL Fred Evans (Texas State)
DL Marques Murrell (Appalachian State)
LB Justin Durant (Hampton)
LB Maurice Bennett (Lafayette)
LB Willie Freeman (Furman)
DB Shannon James (Massachusetts)
DB Jay McCareins (Princeton)
DB Tony LeZotte (James Madison)
DB Reed Doughty (Northern Colorado)

First Team Special Teams
P Wes Taylor (Florida A&M)
K Jarrett Johnson (Idaho State)
R Ricky Williams (Bethune-Cookman)

[JMU Duke Dog]

http://www.jmu.edu/photography/athletics/Football/athletes/LeZotteT/la17720Q02n088.jpg http://www.jmu.edu/photography/athletics/Football/athletes/MagerkoM/la17279Q02n090.jpg

Here was an article about LeZotte and Magerko being on three All-America teams from today's Daily News-Record.

http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=2057&CHID=3


AP: LeZotte, Magerko All-Americans
For the second straight years, the two JMU football standouts are reaping postseason accolades.

By Dustin Dopirak

JMU's Tony LeZotte was named to his second-consecutive AP I-AA All-American team on Wednesday. He finished with team-high 95 tackles and a 100-yard interception return for a TD.

They came to James Madison from totally different sides of the recruiting spectrum. If you told Dukes football coach Mickey Matthews that safety Tony LeZotte would become an All-American, he would have been -- at most -- slightly surprised.

If you told Matthews the same thing about Matt Magerko during the offensive lineman’s final prep year, he wouldn’t have even known whom you were talking about.

But both were named to yet another Division I-AA All-American team Wednesday, and this was the one with the most recognition -- the Associated Press.

The AP selected both LeZotte, a sophomore, and Magerko, a senior, to its first team. Earlier, the Walter Camp Foundation named both as first-teamers, while The Sports Network placed LeZotte on the first team and Magerko on the third.

"It’s obvious at this point that they’re going to be consensus All-Americans," Matthews said. "That’s really something. I don’t remember the last time they had two consensus All-Americans at JMU."

Actually, it’s never happened before. Never has JMU had two players selected to the Associated Press, Sports Network and Walter Camp Foundation teams in the same season. Only twice has JMU had even one player selected to all three of those teams, those being free safety Eupton Jackson in 1990 and linebacker Derrick Lloyd in 2001. LeZotte (in 2004), defensive end Chris Morant (2000) and tailback Curtis Keaton (1999) also were consensus All-Americans, but they weren’t named to all three of the most celebrated lists.

The 6-foot, 190-pound LeZotte is just the eighth JMU player to be named an AP first-team All-American. Magerko became the seventh in last year’s Division I-AA national-championship season and, after helping lead the Dukes to a 7-4 record this fall, is now the first Duke ever named to the first team twice.

As a freshman last year, LeZotte was selected to the All-Atlantic 10 first team, the AP All-American second team, The Sports Network third team and the Football Weekly second team. This year, he was named A-10 Defensive Player of the Year by the coaches and a first-team All-American by the three aforementioned services.

"It’s just an honor to be thought of so highly by the Associated Press, The Sports Network, Walter Camp, the A-10 coaches," LeZotte said Wednesday. "I’ve been blessed. I’ve had two great years. Hopefully, I’ll have two more."

He did admit that the AP team carries a little more weight than the others.

"They’re all great honors," he said, "but I guess people might look at that one, the Associated Press, more than the other ones."

Matthews said he knew he was getting a great player when he recruited LeZotte out of Westside High School in Augusta, Ga., and the coach hasn’t been disappointed. The sophomore registered 95 tackles this season and had an interception for a touchdown.

"I’ve said many times that I thought when we signed Tony he was the best player we’ve ever signed," Matthews said. "He’s done nothing to disprove that fact."

Conversely, Magerko has done everything in his power to disprove what Matthews thought of him when he was initially recruited. Magerko was a 240-pound fullback coming out of Northumberland High School in Farnham who wanted to play for JMU -- but Matthews initially wouldn’t offer him a spot on the team.

That changed when Matthews saw Magerko at the Virginia prep All-Star Game in July after the player’s senior year. Normally, Matthews wouldn’t even have been allowed to watch the game, under NCAA rules, but he was permitted to attend because his son, Clayton, was participating.

"There’s one guy who was the best player out there," Matthews said. "It was Magerko. I called my coaches. I said, ‘Who is this guy from Northumberland, this fullback and linebacker?’ They said, ‘Coach, you turned him down back in February.’ I got in touch with his father and admitted I made a mistake."

Magerko had already signed to wrestle at Virginia but agreed to leave after the fall semester. He joined the Dukes as a defensive lineman, then moved to offensive guard midway through his freshman season. He put on weight – he is now 6 feet, 290 pounds -- and helped pave the way for the Dukes’ power running game the past two years.

"He is a self-made All-American," Matthews said. "Nothing came easy to him."