ACC All-Conference team: Watson, Cook highlight talented offensive group
The end of the college football regular season is finally upon us. In this break before the bowl games, college football takes time to honor the top performers from the season. The ACC took home plenty of honors this year with a Heisman finalist, four first-team All-Americans and a College Football Playoff team.
There's no reason to stop giving awards now, so here's theScore's ACC All-Conference team:
Offense
| Position | Player | Team |
|---|---|---|
| QB | Deshaun Watson | Clemson |
| RB | Dalvin Cook | Florida State |
| RB | Elijah Hood | North Carolina |
| WR | Isaiah Ford | Virginia Tech |
| WR | Tyler Boyd | Pitt |
| TE | Jaylen Samuels | NC State |
| OL | Roderick Johnson | Florida State |
| OL | Adam Bisnowaty | Pitt |
| OL | Landon Turner | North Carolina |
| OL | Eric Mac Lain | Clemson |
| OL | Matt Skura | Duke |
| K | Roberto Aguayo | Florida State |
| RET | DeVon Edwards | Duke |
In a way, you've got to feel bad for Marquise Williams. It's hard to be the best quarterback in the ACC when you've had to compete against Jameis Winston and Deshaun Watson for the title. Watson went wire-to-wire in the ACC this year, living up to the hype of preseason ACC Player of the Year and winning the conference title after coming in as the favorite. The All-American took home the Davey O'Brien Award last week for the nation's best quarterback, and Clemson still has him for at least another year.
The ACC quietly had two of the best running backs in the country this season in Dalvin Cook and Elijah Hood. Cook ran for over 1,600 yards and was in the Heisman conversation for a while, but Hood's 1,345 yards and 17 touchdowns went under the national radar for most of the year. Like Watson, both Cook and Hood will be back for next season, which is scary for the other teams in the ACC.
Isaiah Ford led the conference in both receiving yards and touchdowns, but the ACC didn't have a single 1,000-yard receiver this year, which is surprising considering some of the great quarterback play we saw in the conference. Jaylen Samuels was one of the big breakouts of the season, leading NC State in receiving yards after making just six catches a year ago.
Roberto Aguayo is going to go down as one of the best college kickers of all time. This year wasn't his best, but it was still good enough to get him All-ACC honors. As for DeVon Edwards? He only took back three kickoffs for touchdowns, including a 100-yarder in Duke's win over Georgia Tech.
Defense
| Position | Player | Team |
|---|---|---|
| DE | Shaq Lawson | Clemson |
| DE | Connor Wujciak | Boston College |
| DT | Luther Maddy | Virginia Tech |
| DT | Nile Lawrence-Stample | Florida State |
| LB | James Burgess | Louisville |
| LB | Brandon Chubb | Wake Forest |
| LB | Steven Daniels | Boston College |
| CB | Jalen Ramsey | Florida State |
| CB | Artie Burns | Miami |
| S | Jeremy Cash | Duke |
| S | Quin Blanding | Virginia |
| P | Riley Dixon | Syracuse |
There's really no bad place to start on this defense. You could argue that the ACC's All-Defensive team is the best in the country, and there's plenty of reasons to back that up.
Shaq Lawson and Jeremy Cash are both All-Americans, and they aren't the only ones who will be playing on Sundays sometime in the future (Jalen Ramsey, Brandon Chubb, Luther Maddy, etc.). The ACC put together some of the most feared defenses in college football this year, and when you look at this roster it's easy to see why.
Syracuse's Riley Dixon not only punted with the best in the nation, but ran fake punts so well the Orange faithful started a Heisman campaign for him.