Did the voters ever botch the Awards this season. Somehow, both Tide corners make First-Team AP All-American, and starting FS Caleb Downs makes Second-Team All-American…and not one of them was a Thorpe Award finalist (we voted for Terrion Arnold, BTW).

JC Latham joined Downs on the second-team. And Third-Team went to the NCAA’s all-time leader in scoring and Lou Groza snubs, Will Reichard.

First, congratulations to all six; it was well-deserved. And, yes, we can dither over whether Latham ought to have been an Outland finalist (he should), and whether Turner deserved the Bednarik (he did).

But one thing that is beyond dispute is that Will Reichard is about to get screwed hard.

Again. With no vaseline. Not even some Red Lobster.

See, according to the baroque rules governing the NCAA College Football Hall of Fame, to be eligible for consideration, one must have made at least one first-team All-American selection. However, Will has not once in his career been named as first-teamer by any of the selectors presently used by the CFB HoF. In 2020, Will was a first-teamer…by CBS Sports. He was named an All-American by an official selector, Sporting News, but only as a second-teamer. And this year, unless Walter Camp, the AFCA, or FWAA select him first (and he did get my vote), the leading scorerer in college football history will never be enshrined in the hall of fame.

It is with a serious bitter irony that the player he overtook for that spot, Navy’s Keenan Reynolds, also shares that historical injustice. Reynolds was never a first-teamer either. Though perhaps the most prolific and dangerous option QB since the 1970s, in an era of passing, winning 36 games — including an 11-2 season — at Navy of all places matters little when you RTDB.

This whole system is f’d, y’all.

They say that the best revenge is to live well. If Reichard’s career has taught us anything, it is that we hope he goes out like a king. Never has a player so good deserved so much shade and been so summarily disregarded.