Poyer An AP All-American; Texas Transitions Play-Calling As Coaching Carousel Spins

Oregon St. cornerback Jordan Poyer has been named to the AP All-American team, one of 6 Pac-12 players to make the first team, and one of 15 on the 3-deep.

It's the third significant All-America team that the Beavers' senior has been named a first-teamer on, having previously made both the CBS American Football Coaches' Association and Walter Camp Foundation lists. If Poyer is also named to the Football Writers Association first team, which is scheduled to be announced this Friday, he will become the first consensus All-American named to all the major lists from Oregon St. since center John Didion in 1967.

In addition to Poyer, defensive tackles Star Lotulelei from Utah and Will Sutton from Arizona St. from the Pac-12 were named to the AP first team defense, and USC WR Marquise Lee, Stanford TE Zach Ertz, and Arizona RB Ka'Deem Carey were named to the offense.

The 4 Pac-12 players on the AP second team include UCLA RB Johnathan Franklin, Oregon RB Kenjon Barner, Stanford OT David Yankey, and UCLA OLB Anthony Barr.

Players from the conference named to the third team include UCLA guard Xavier Su'a-Filo, Washington TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Stanford OLB Trent Murphy, Oregon CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, and Stanford FS Ed Reynolds.

Texas Makes Transition

The runaway wave of coaching transitions already overwhelming the college football landscape has finally impacted the Alamo Bowl, which Oregon St. will be in, as Texas, the Beavers' opponent, has been impacted.

No, Mack Brown isn't going anywhere, but the Longhorns' co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin, who handled play-calling for Texas, is. Harsin has been hired as the new head coach at Arkansas St., who found themselves without their headcoach Gus Malzahn, who left after leading the Red Wolves to a 9-3 season and the Sun Belt Conference Championship to return to Auburn, where he was the offensive coordinator when the Tigers won the National Championship 2 years ago, to become their head coach.

Beaver fans may recall Harsin as the Boise St. offensive coordinator when Oregon St. visited the Broncos 2 years ago.

Texas will turn over play-calling for the Alamo Bowl to Major Applewhite, a former Longhorn quarterback who was co-offensive coordinator with Harsin.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com