ESPN's 2026 Preseason All-America Team
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- ESPN unveiled its 2026 preseason All-America team, with Texas leading at five first-team selections (notably without Arch Manning) and Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Texas Tech each placing two.
- Three players return from ESPN's 2025 postseason All-America squad: Notre Dame CB Leonard Moore, Indiana OT Carter Smith and Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith.
- Last year's class was a largely inaccurate forecast — only seven of ESPN's 26 first-team preseason picks in 2025 landed on the final postseason first team.
- Julian Sayin (Ohio State QB) earned the first-team QB nod after posting a 77% completion rate (third-best in NCAA history), 3,610 passing yards and 42 touchdowns as a first-year starter.
- Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State WR) was framed as perhaps the best all-around player in college football, having piled up 2,258 receiving yards and 27 touchdowns since the start of 2024 — the most of any FBS pass catcher.
- Cam Coleman, ESPN's No. 1 transfer portal player, landed at Texas after catching 93 passes for 1,306 yards and 13 touchdowns across two seasons at Auburn.
- Kewan Lacy (Ole Miss RB) led the SEC in forced missed tackles (109) and carries (306) while ranking second nationally with 24 rushing touchdowns and third with 1,567 rushing yards.
Why it matters: Texas placing five players on the first team — and doing it without its most famous quarterback — signals the deepest roster in college football entering 2026, while the disclosed 73% miss rate from last year's preseason list (19 of 26 first-team picks failed to make the final team) frames the entire exercise as a conversation-starter rather than a forecast.
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