PFF College All-American Team: What did they get right and which Longhorns were left out?
The Texas Longhorns are easily playing one of their best seasons in the 21st century, if not the best. So it is only natural for fans to expect to see some recognition in the award circuit. So far that has looked like it will be more of a fantasy instead of it being reality with the SEC snubbing many Longhorns for All-Conference honors already. Did Pro Football Focus do the same with their All-America team?
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Before even looking, let’s acknowledge this should be easy for them to pump out a list. With their rankings and stats one would expect to see PFF stand by those measures and reward the players their own metrics say are the best. Let’s see how they did when it comes to the Longhorns.
Note: PFF only did one All-America team
From Texas, PFF selected:
- Kelvin Banks, LT
- Jahdae Barron, CB
- Michael Taaffe, S
On one hand, it’s nice to finally see Michael Taaffe get some of the recognition he deserves.
On the other hand however… what? There is quite a lot right here, so let’s look at the individual positions where Texas possibly got snubbed. And let’s compare with the PFF stats/grades to see how much they trust their own service.
Left Guard
The first potential snub. Dylan Fairchild out of Georgia was selected for the All-PFF Team, and while the note under Fairchild may be true to an extent, a lot of statistical gymnastics were used to get him into the top 15 run blocking LGs. For reference this was one of the notes under Fairchild
“He was the only left guard in America to post top-15 grades both as a pass protector and a run blocker.”
To get Fairchild to a top-15 run blocking grade among LGs would require implementing 600 snaps as a minimum. Any left guards that had 599 snaps or fewer and a 99.0 run blocking grade would be tossed out for this stat. So given all of that how does Hayden Conner compare to Fairchild?
Rank per Category (minimum 600 snaps)
Pass Blocking: Conner #2, Fairchild #4
Run Blocking: Conner #30, Fairchild #15
Center
One has to think Jake Majors was incredibly close to making the All-PFF Team. Now this one probably doesn’t fall under the “snub” category, but here’s how the two Jake’s, Majors and Florida’s Jake Slaughter, compared
Interior DL
Another position similar to center. It is probably the right call to go with Mason Graham and Walter Nolen, but there really isn’t a “wrong” call here. One could certainly make an argument for Alfred Collins or Vernon Broughton, a big part of that argument should be other teams don’t have the depth that Texas has. Which led to less snaps for Collins and Broughton.
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Safety
Yes, Taaffe did get his due respect, but the same cannot be said for Andrew Mukuba. This snub makes things confusing.
Xavier Watts out of Notre Dame was chosen alongside Taaffe. Yet Mukuba owns better grades in almost every single category over Watts. The only category he doesn’t, pass rush, is probably least relevant for a safety.
Listed in the notes for the decision, PFF writes that Watts was “tying for first among FBS safeties with five interceptions. His 30.4 passer rating allowed ranks fifth among Power Four safeties.”
It is likely they wanted to avoid two safeties from the same team.
Texas has earned the right to contend for awards and accolades, a far cry from where the program has been over the past 10-15 years. Nothing is given, save for motivation.
What is going on right now may just be the extra chip on the shoulder that pushes this team toward a national title. After all, according to Taaffe’s Twitter, that’s the biggest and best award one can receive.
