More All-America Honors For Shelton, Kikaha
December 11, 2014 | Football
Danny Shelton joined the ranks off all-time Huskies to be named first team All-America when USA Today selected him to their top squad Thursday. Kikaha was named to the publication's second team.
Later on Thursday, the Walter Camp All-America team was announced, with senior linebacker Hau'oli Kikaha on the first team and Shelton on the second.
Shelton is the 56th Husky to earn first team recognition, joining teammates Kikaha and Shaq Thompson, who were selected first team All-Americans by CBS Sports Wednesday. Shelton, Thompson and Kikaha are the first UW trio to be named first team All-Americans in the same season since 1991 (Dave Hoffmann, Steve Emtman and Mario Bailey).
Shelton, a senior from Auburn, Wash., was second among Huskies with 89 tackles and 16.5 tackles for loss, and ranked third on the team with 9.0 sacks. He also tied for the Pac-12 lead with four fumble recoveries. Shelton spearheaded a defensive line that ranked second in the conference allowing 121.9 rushing yards per game.
Shelton was a Bednarik Award Semifinalist, 2014 All-Pac-12 First Team and Academic All-Pac-12 First Team. He also was named CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team, the first Husky to be so honored since 1991.
Kikaha finished the regular season with a school record 18.0 sacks and 24.0 tackles for loss. He is also the Washington career record holder with 35 sacks. He had at least one sack in 12 of 13 games. He was a finalist for five national awards and was a first-team Academic All-District VIII honoree.
Also Thursday, both Thompson and Kikaha were named first-team All-America by SBNation and scout.com (Thompson as an "athlete" on the latter) while Shelton joined them on the SBNation first team while earning second-team from scout.com.
