WTF? Virginia gets exactly one guy on the preseason All-ACC Football Team

No Brennan Armstrong. None of the receivers from the top wideout group in the ACC, maybe the country. Virginia, predictably, got hosed in the balloting for the preseason All-ACC Football Team.

Keytaon Thompson is the only guy to land a spot on the team, at the All-Purpose position.

Armstrong, who led the ACC in passing in 2021, throwing for 4,449 yards and 31 touchdowns, wasn’t the first-team QB, and even finished behind three other QBs in the preseason Player of the Year voting.

The wideouts – Dontayvion Wicks (57 catches, 1,203 yards, nine TDs in 2021), Thompson (77 catches, 1,217 yards from scrimmage), Billy Kemp (75 catches) and Lavel Davis Jr. (a freshman All-America in 2020, missed last year with a torn ACL – were shut out.

The ACC’s leading tackler in 2021, middle linebacker Nick Jackson – also left off the team.

Fourteen of the 27 members of the first team come from schools in the Carolinas – Clemson, UNC, N.C. State and Wake Forest – which makes sense.

The voting was done by largely by media credentialed for last week’s ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, and from hanging around the hotel for three days, it seemed that there was somebody with a pen and notebook pad representing every town of more than 20 people in North and South Carolina.

Flip side, there weren’t many of us folks from up in Virginia, mainly because the company that owns most of the newspapers up our way is notoriously cheap.

Which might explain why Virginia Tech didn’t even have a single guy on the team, in addition to Virginia getting just the one.

Anyway, as an aside, this is why I’m not reupping my memberships in outfits like the Football Writers Association of America, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, after years of being a member.

All you get from being a member of these things is your name in a guide that nobody ever reads, and a chance to vote in these dumb popularity contests.

2022 Preseason All-ACC Football Team

(Total votes in parenthesis)

Offense

• QB Devin Leary, NC State (56)
• RB Sean Tucker, Syracuse (125)
• RB Will Shipley, Clemson (112)
• WR Josh Downs, North Carolina (128)
• WR A.T. Perry, Wake Forest (111)
• WR Zay Flowers, Boston College (104)
• TE Will Mallory, Miami (69)
• AP Keytaon Thompson, Virginia (70)
• OT Jordan McFadden, Clemson (127)
• OT Zion Nelson, Miami (82)
• OG Caleb Chandler, Louisville (104)
• OG Christian Mahogany, Boston College (67)
• C Grant Gibson, NC State (90)

Defense

• DE Myles Murphy, Clemson (120)
• DE Habakkuk Baldonado, Pitt (54)
• DT Bryan Bresee, Clemson (116)
• DT Calijah Kancey, Pitt (62)
• LB Drake Thomas, NC State (92)
• LB Trenton Simpson, Clemson (82)
• LB Payton Wilson, NC State (60)
• CB Kei’Trel Clark, Louisville (70)
• CB Josh DeBerry, Boston College (65)
• S Jammie Robinson, Florida State (93)
• S Tanner Ingle, NC State (63)

Special Teams

• PK B.T. Potter, Clemson (99)
• P  Lou Hedley, Miami (101)
• SP Josh Downs, North Carolina (57)

Preseason Player of the Year

1. Devin Leary, QB, NC State (40)
2. Sam Hartman, QB, Wake Forest (30)
3, Tyler Van Dyke, QB, Miami (21)
4-t.Bryan Breese, DT, Clemson (14)
4-t. Brennan Armstrong, QB, Virginia (14)
6-t. Malik Cunningham, QB, Louisville (12)
6-t. Josh Downs, WR, North Carolina (12)
8. Sean Tucker, RB, Syracuse (11)
9. Myles Murphy, DT, Clemson (5)
10. Trenton Simpson, LB, Clemson (3)
11. Jammie Robinson, S, Florida State (2)