FAYETTEVILLE — Hunter Henry has been piling up awards since the regular season ended.
The junior from Little Rock won the John Mackey Award for college football’s top tight end and was named first-team all-SEC by the coaches and Associated Press. Four of the five all-America teams the NCAA uses to determine consensus honors have also named him to their first team.
However, when the Football Writers Association of America released its all-America team, it didn’t include Henry. In fact, it didn’t include a tight end at all.
While most all-America teams had two running backs, two wide receivers and one tight end, the FWAA’s team had three running backs and two wide receivers.
“We had a rigorous discussion on whether to include a tight end this season,” Lee Barfknecht, the 2015 FWAA President, told WholeHogSports. “The consensus on the committee was to honor three running backs instead.”
The FWAA’s 13-person all-America committee is comprised of one representative for each of the 10 FBS conferences, one independent (Army, BYU and Notre Dame) representative and two national representatives.
Florida State’s Dalvin Cook, LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Alabama’s Derrick Henry were the running backs they chose to place on the first team instead of picking a tight end.
Barfknecht said there is flexibility built into the process that allows the committee to decide how many players at each position make the team each year.
“It comes down to our all-America committee’s decision on which players to include,” Barfknecht said. “There is no bias. Our analysis is cold-blooded. We pick a team based on performance in the 2015 season.”
Fournette (158.3 yards/game), Henry (152.8) and Cook (150.7) were the top three rushers in college football in terms of yards per game in 2015.
Arkansas’ Henry caught 46 passes for 647 yards and three touchdowns this season, leading the country in receiving yards among tight ends.
This is the fourth time since 2006 the FWAA hasn’t included a tight end on its all-America team. The previous three times – 2006, 2010 and 2012 – there were three receivers and two running backs.
In 2003, the team included three receivers, one running back and one tight end, backing up Barfknecht’s statement that the FWAA is flexible when choosing its players.
To be named a consensus all-American by the NCAA, a player must be a first-team selection on three of the five teams the association recognizes: Walter Camp Football Foundation, Associated Press, FWAA, The Sporting News and American Football Coaches Association.
While consensus honors are wrapped up for Henry, many Arkansas fans have expressed concern about whether the FWAA’s tight end omission affects his chance of being a unanimous all-American, which requires being on all five first teams.
In 2012, Stanford’s Zach Ertz was still considered a unanimous all-American despite the FWAA not including a tight end on its team. The other four voted Ertz as their first-team tight end.
If that holds true this season, Henry will become Arkansas’ eighth different player to earn unanimous all-America honors and first since Darren McFadden in 2007.
(Billy Ray Smith is the Razorbacks’ only two-time unanimous all-American.)
The NCAA will make the official announcement about consensus and unanimous all-Americans Thursday.