The American Football Coaches Association has released its 2006 All-American Team and, although it is lead by many of the familiar faces that you would expect in Troy Smith of Ohio State, Lamarr Woodley and Leon Hall of Michigan, Calvin Johnson of Georgia Tech, and Joe Thomas of Wisconsin, there were a few notable surprises.

In my opinion, the biggest surprise is that Marshawn Lynch was one of the two first-team running backs. He is clearly a fine player and had a very good season, but there were a number of seemingly more-worthy players available. Ray Rice of Rutgers, Ian Johnson of Boise State, Michael Hart of Michigan, and even Garrett Wolfe of Northern Illinios would have all probably been ahead of Lynch on my list. Lynch was certainly an interesting choice.

It is also surprising to see that the coaches only selected two linebackers to their team, and even moreso, that Penn State’s Paul Posluszny, the winner of the 2005 Butkus and Bednarik Awards, did not receive a spot.