Blanding and Kiser Named to Three All-America Teams

Dec. 11, 2017

Charlottesville, Va. – Virginia free safety Quin Blanding and inside linebacker Micah Kiser were named to three All-America teams Monday. The Football Writers Association of American and USA Today named them to their second teams and the Associated Press tabbed them as third-team selections.

It marks the second consecutive season Kiser has been named to the FWAA All-America team. He was also a second-team selection in 2016.

Blanding has now been named to seven All-America teams this year while Kiser has been honored by five different All-America squads.

Blanding (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) ranks No. 2 in the ACC and No. 15 in the nation with 121 tackles. His 121 tackles and 10.1 tackles per game leads the nation’s defensive backs. His four interceptions rank No. 3 in the ACC and No. 23 in the nation. Blanding is Virginia’s all-time career tackle leader with 479 stops, which ranks No. 10 all-time in ACC history and No. 1 among ACC defensive backs. Blanding finished the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons No. 2 in the ACC in tackles and is on pace to do so for a fourth time. He finished behind Kiser in 2015 and 2016. Blanding was named a first-team All-ACC safety for the third year in a row and was a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award. Blanding is also the Touchdown Club of Richmond’s Defensive Back of the Year for the third year in a row.

Kiser (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) ranks No. 1 in the ACC and tied for No. 4 in the nation with 134 tackles. His 134 stops tie his 2016 output and Wali Rainer (1998) for No. 4 on UVA’s single-season tackle list. Kiser was a finalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy and Senior CLASS Award, while he was a semifinalist for the Butkus Award. He is No. 5 all-time at UVA with 400 career tackles and owns 20 career double-digit tackle games in 36 career starts. Kiser’s 385 tackles since the start of the 2015 season are the most in the nation during that span. He has been named a first-team All-ACC linebacker for three seasons in a row.

Kiser is also the Touchdown Club of Richmond’s Linebacker of the Year for the third year in a row, and was named the 2017 Dudley Award winner as the state of Virginia’s top Division I player. The National Football Foundation named Kiser the winner of the 2017 William V. Campbell Trophy as the nation’s top football scholar-athlete.

Previously, Blanding has been named a first-team All-American by Bleacher Report and SB Nation, a second-team pick by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and a third-team selection by Sports on Earth. Kiser has been named a second-team All-American by SB Nation and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.