Long Named Mid-Season All-American

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Virginia defensive end Chris Long has been named to Mid-Season All-America teams selected by SportsIllustrated.com, Rivals.com and Phil Steele’s College Football Preview magazine.

A candidate for many prestigious awards, including the Bednarik Award (nation’s best defensive player), the Nagurski Award (outstanding defensive player) and the Ted Hendricks Award (defensive end of the year), Long leads the ACC and ranks fourth in the country in sacks (1.17/g) through the first half of the season. His seven sacks are already a career high.

The senior co-captain also leads all defensive linemen in passes defended (PBUs+INTs) with six and is second with five pass break ups.

He is third among Atlantic Coast Conference linemen in tackling with an average of 6.0 tackles per game. Long also ranks fourth in the ACC in tackles for loss, averaging 1.42 per game. A quarter (nine of 36) of his tackles have been for a loss so far this season.

In a win over Duke that started UVa’s five-game winning streak, Long shared the team lead with eight tackles and had two sacks for the second game in a row; he also had three QB pressures.

The following week against North Carolina he intercepted a pass early in the fourth quarter to set up what ultimately became UVa’s game-winning field goal in a 22-20 road win.

He led the team with nine tackles in the win over Georgia Tech, the second-highest total of his career, and broke up three passes. In last week’s win over Middle Tennessee, he finished with five tackles, including two for loss, and blocked a field goal as UVa gained a 23-21 win on Chris Gould’s field goal with eight seconds left.

Long is currently ranked eighth in Virginia history with 33 career tackles for loss and 10th with 15 sacks.