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London and Minnifield Head UVa's VaSID Honorees
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Nine Virginia football players were named to Virginia Sports Information Directors Association (VaSID) All-State Division I Football Team, announced Thursday. Highlighting the honorees was head coach Mike London, named the VaSID Coach of the Year and Chase Minnifield, named the VaSID Defensive Player of the Year. Austin Pasztor (OG), Matt Conrath (DE), Steve Greer (LB) and Minnfield (CB) were named to the first-team at their respective positions, while Perry Jones (RB), Kris Burd (WR), Cam Johnson (DE), Demetrious Nicholson (CB) and Rodney McLeod (S) earned second-team honors.
Sports information directors from throughout the state took part in the voting which, in addition to the top individual awards, named all-state first and second teams on offense and defense.
Virginia Tech’s David Wilson was named the VaSID Offensive Player of the Year and Old Dominion’s Taylor Heinicke earned VaSID Rookie of the Year honors.
London earned VaSID Coach of the Year honors after leading UVa to an 8-5 record and an appearance in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in just his second season at the helm. Virginia finished in second place in the ACC’s Coastal Division and was one win away from advancing to the ACC Championship game. In 2011 the Cavaliers became the first team in the history of college football to earn road wins at both Miami and Florida State in the same season. London, who was also named 2011 ACC Coach of the Year and 2011 Grant Teaff Coach of the Year as selected by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, coached three All-Americans and eight All-ACC honorees in 2011.
Minnifield started all 12 regular season games for the Cavaliers before missing the Chick-fil-A Bowl with an injury and became the first UVa defensive back to be named first-team All-ACC multiple times in a career since Anthony Poindexter was a three-time winner (1996, ‘97, ‘98). Minnifield finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the nation among active players with 13 career interceptions. The senior finished the season with 47 tackles, including 6.5 for loss and a blocked field goal. He was the Pop Warner National College Football Award winner as well as being named CBSSports.com second-team All-American, Yahoo! Sports third-team All-American, Phil Steele Postseason List All-American fourth-team and Touchdown Club of Richmond’s Defensive Back of the Year. Minnifield was a Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award Finalist, a Ronnie Lott IMPACT Trophy Semifinalist and a Thorpe Award semifinalist as well as being on the CFPA Defensive Back of the Year watch list and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List.