More All-America Honors for Blanding and Kiser

Charlottesville, Va. – More All-America honors were bestowed on Virginia free safety Quin Blanding and inside linebacker Micah Kiser Tuesday. The Sporting News named the pair to its 2017 All-America team. Kiser as a first-team selection while Blanding was a second-team pick. CBS Sports announced Kiser as a second-team pick for its All-America team.

The Sporting News is one of five outlets the NCAA recognizes in compiling its annual consensus All-America squad. The others are the Walter Camp Football Foundation, the Associated Press, the Football Writers Association of America and the American Football Coaches Association.

Blanding has now been named to nine All-America teams this year while Kiser has been honored by eight 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 College Football News, Bleacher Report and SB Nation, a second-team pick by the Walter Camp Football Foundation, the Associated Press, USA Today and the Football Writers of America Association and a third-team selection by Sports on Earth.

Kiser has been named a second-team All-American by the AP, FWAA, USA Today, College Football News, SB Nation and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.