Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina fifth-year senior offensive lineman
Tyler Smith and sophomore running back
Desmond Reid were both selected to the second-team All-America team by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) announced today.
The All-America honors are the first for both Catamounts, though Reid collected a pair of Freshman All-America honors in 2022 from both Stats Perform FCS and Hero Sports.
Smith will long be remembered in Catamount football history as the program's ironman along the offensive line. Over his five-year career, the Laurinburg, N.C., product played in 58 career games with 54 consecutive starts at left tackle. Smith was a first-team All-Southern Conference selection from both the league's head coaches and the voting media in the SoCon Sports Media Association. He started all 11 games in 2023 in helping the Catamounts to a school-record 5,545 yards of total offense and an NCAA FCS-leading 504.1 yards of offense per game.
Seeing action in eight of the team's 11 games – and twice being limited by injury among those eight appearances – WCU second-year tailback
Desmond Reid posted the second-most rushing yards in the SoCon this season with 897 yards while pacing the league with 112.1 yards per game average. He was second in the league with a career-best 13 rushing touchdowns that included scoring a career-best five in the first half in the road win at The Citadel in late September. A two-time SoCon Offensive Player of the Week, Reid had a run of five consecutive 100-yard rushing games including a season-high 211 yards on just 15 carries in the road win at No. 20/24 Chattanooga in early October.
Reid added 21 catches for 283 yards to finish the season with 1,180 all-purpose yards, pacing the conference with a 147.5 all-purpose yard per-game average. The SoCon Freshman of the Year in 2022, Reid was a second-team honoree a season ago before collecting the first, first-team nod of his two-year career.
This postseason, WCU has seen five players earn various postseason All-America honors including today's selections for Reid and Smith. Placekicker
Richard McCollum landed on three postseason All-America teams including FCS Football Central, Phil Steele, and Stats Perform FCS. Smith's offensive line counterpart
Christian Coulter joined McCollum on the FCS Football Central team, with WR
Corey Washington collecting Freshman All-America honors from Phil Steele.
The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. What makes these teams so special is that they are the only ones chosen exclusively by the men who know the players the best — the coaches themselves.
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