WSU Football: Deone Bucannon Named Walter Camp Second Team All American

Nov 16, 2013; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats running back KaDeem Carey (25) is tackled by Washington State Cougars safety Deone Bucannon (20) during the third quarter at Arizona Stadium. The Cougars beat the Wildcats 24-17. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Washington State’s Deone Bucannon is racking up the awards now and his latest are kind of a big deal.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation announced Thursday that they selected Bucannon as a second team All-American, while Athlon Sports announced that he was named a first team All-American earlier in the day.

Walter Camp owns the oldest All-America team in NCAA football, this was their 124th annual selection. Bucannon was one of 51 players selected to the top two teams, which is a huge honor, being that there are 125 teams with about 85 scholarship players each (for the most part) to choose from.

I’ve heard as recently as last week that Bucannon is a terrible tackler by a blogger who analyses such things for NFL Draft prospects, but the numbers speak for themselves. 106 tackles last season, and 109 so far this season (with more sure to come in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl game) say that “Buc” is actually a tremendous tackler. Regardless, he is undoubtedly the Cougars’ heart and soul on defense and leads his team into a bowl game for the first time in 10 seasons.

More impressive stats for Bucannon:

• First second team AA honor since Mkristo Bruce (2006), first AA honor since Brandon Gibson (2007 third team)
• Back to back triple digit tackles; first time since Billy Newman at S in 1999, 2000
• 109 tackles leads Pac-12 Conference, most since James Darling had 136 in 1996 (another game to go for 9 teams)
• 379 career tackles ties for 4th in WSU history, also NCAA’s active leader in career solo tackles, 5th overall
• 5 interceptions tied for 4th in conference, 3 forced and 3 recovered fumbles tied for WSU lead
• 14 career interceptions tie for 3rd in WSU history and 2nd among NCAA actives

[H/T: WSUAthletics]