Football Has 17 Players on Preseason Big East Team

Phil Steele really loves football. His College Football Preview annual will be released later this summer and earlier this week he posted his preseason all-conference teams. You can see his Big East picks here (note: it's a .pdf file).

The good news: UConn has 17 players on list. Not too bad, right? Well, as the UConn Blog points out, "…[T]here are only eight Big East teams and Steele goes as deep as a 4th team. That means there are 112 open spots so it's kind of tough not to get a ton of players on the list (sidenote: Hello Rutgers and your seven selections!)."

So it could be worse, but it could also be a lot better.  A quick rundown of the Huskies recognized:

1st Team (4)
* Mike Ryan, OT
* Kendall Reyes, DT
* Sio Moore, LB
* Blidi Wreh-Wilson, CB

2nd Team (6)
* Mike Smith, WR
* Ryan Griffin, TE
* Moe Petrus, C
* Jesse Joseph, DE
* Dwayne Gratz, CB
* Dave Teggart, K

3rd Team (4)
* Randy Martinez, OG
* Twyon Martin, DT
* Jerome Junior, S
* Cole Wagner, P

4th Team (3)
* DJ Shoemate, RB
* Adam Masters, OT
* Jerome Junior, S

Yep, Mike Smith was one of the 17 Huskies to make the list, and yes he won't play one down in the fall. The other 16 names are organized about like we expected based on spring practice and team needs: the first team is heavy with defensive players, special teams has a presence, and the skill positions -- QB, WR, RB -- aren't well represented. (With Smith ineligible, the Huskies don't have one wide receiver on Steele's four-team all conference team. That's all you need to know about UConn's offense heading into the 2011 season.)

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