Bay area Bull joins George Selvie as just the second Bull to earn first team honors from two of the five major selection organizations and is the first since 2007
TAMPA, DEC. 10, 2021 – USF’s Brian Battie (Sarasota) earned his second major All-America selection Friday as the standout kick returner was named to the 2021 Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) first team following a record-setting season that saw the Bay area native lead the nation with three kickoff returns for touchdowns, tie an NCAA game record and break the Bulls’ season return average record.
Battie, who was earlier named to the Walter Camp All-America first team, joins defensive end George Selvie as the only Bulls to earn first team selection from two of the five major All-America selection organizations and is the first to do so since 2007. Selvie, a defensive end, became the Bulls’ first and only consensus first-team selection in 2007 (Walter Camp, AP, FWAA & AFCA) and was also an AFCA first-team pick in 2008 to become USF’s only two-time first team honoree. Battie joins Selvie, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (2009) and cornerback Mike Jenkins (2007) among the Bulls’ four first team FBS All-America selections in program history.
BATTIE 2021 All-AMERICA SELECTIONS:
Walter Camp – First Team
FWAA – First Team
Action Network – First Team
Bleacher Report – First Team
Pro Football Network – First Team
Pro Football Focus – Second Team
CBS Sports/247 Sports – Second Team
The FWAA selected its 78th All-America team Friday. For seven decades the FWAA has selected an All-America team with the help of its members and an All-America Committee, which represents all the regions in the country. Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of journalists, broadcasters, publicists, photographers and key executives in all areas of college football.
The FWAA team is the second announced among the five All-America teams used to determine NCAA consensus All-Americans. Since 2002, teams from Walter Camp, the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Associated Press (announced Monday), The Sporting News (Tuesday) and American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) (Wednesday) have been the five designated selectors by the NCAA.
A player must receive first team honors from three of the five selecting organizations to earn NCAA consensus All-America honors.
USF now has a total of six first-team All-Americans, as punter Tony Umholtz (1999) and kicker Bill Gramatica (1998) earned FCS All-America selections, respectively. A total of 13 Bulls have earned All-America recognition of some kind, with Battie becoming the first since kicker Marvin Kloss earned second-team honors from Athlon Sports and honorable mention from SI.com in 2013.
Battie is the second kick returner to earn All-America honors for USF. He broke the Bulls’ 18-year-old season kick return average record set by J.R. Reed in 2003 as Reed led the nation with a 31.7 average on 18 returns and earned honorable mention All-America honors from SI.com. Going into bowl season, Battie currently stands fourth nationally with a 33.9 yards per return average on 19 returns and could end the season higher as the three players ahead of him will all compete in bowl games.
Named the American Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Week twice on the 2021 season and second-team all-conference by Pro Football Focus, Battie had an NCAA record-tying performance vs. Houston with two 100-yard kickoff returns in the game. Battie dazzled the Raymond James Stadium crowd on homecoming as he joined Utah’s Reggie Dunn (vs. Cal in 2012) as the only two players in NCAA history to post two 100-yard kickoff returns in the same game, part of three touchdowns and 236 all-purpose yards for the 5-8 running back/kick returner in the game. Battie also scored on a 29-yard touchdown run and his 208 kickoff return yards in the game are second all-time at USF behind Terrence Horne’s 264 vs. Georgia Tech in 2018.
Battie posted a 100-yard return vs. Tulsa in Week 7 and finished the season with three, one behind Dunn’s NCAA record of four posted in the 2012 season. He joined Alabama’s Jameson Williams as the only players to post two touchdown returns in the same game this season. Williams doing so vs. Southern Mississippi.
Battie is the first USF player to post more than one 100-yard return on their career and he set USF season and career records by posting three touchdown returns on kickoffs. He joined fellow Bull Terrence Horne among just 27 players in NCAA history to post two returns for touchdowns in one game, Horne doing so in 2018 vs. Georgia Tech (98 & 97).
He also ran for 324 yards and one touchdown on the season while averaging 5.6 yards per carry and caught seven passes for 67 yards as he led the Bulls with 1,035 all-purpose yards (86.3 ypg).
ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
The USF football program first took the field in 1997 and celebrated its 25th season (22nd at the FBS level) in 2021. The Bulls have posted 15 winning seasons, earned 15 All-America selections and 31 first-team all-conference selections, and have seen 30 players selected in the NFL Draft. USF has made 10 bowl games appearances (going 6-4 in those games) and posted a program-record six straight appearances from 2005-2010. The Bulls most recently made four straight bowl appearances from 2015-18 and posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, logging a program-record 11-2 mark in 2016 while finishing both seasons ranked in the Top 25. USF spent a program-record 20 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 during the 2016 and 2017 seasons and reached as high as No. 2 in the national rankings during the 2007 season.
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