It’s time once again to announce our SIS College Football Preseason All-CUSA Team, plus Independents. We used our all-encompassing player value stat, Total Points, along with other metrics and our scouting work as leading references in putting together our selections.

A brief explanation of Total Points:

Total Points takes nearly everything that SIS measures about a play and uses it to evaluate each player on a scale that allows you to compare them more easily. It’s always useful to be able to understand the different ways in which players can be valuable. Does he break a lot of tackles? Does he get a lot of yards after the catch? Does he make the best out of a poor offensive line? Does he get more pressures than expected? Does he break up a lot of passes? Total Points offers the opportunity to take all of those elements and get a quick picture of how well a player is performing overall.

You can learn more about Total Points and the statistics referenced within this piece here.

Here are our selections:

1st Team Offense

Position Name School
QB Maverick McIvor Western Kentucky
RB Jeremiyah Love Notre Dame
RB Jadarian Price Notre Dame
WR Jaden Greathouse Notre Dame
WR Malachi Fields Notre Dame
TE Louis Hansen UConn
T Aamil Wagner Notre Dame
T Marshall Jackson Western Kentucky
G James Dawn II Sam Houston State
G Billy Schrauth Notre Dame
C Aaron Fenimore Liberty

1st Team Defense

Position Name School
DT Donovan Hinish Notre Dame
DT Jared Dawson Notre Dame
EDGE Junior Tuihalamaka Notre Dame
EDGE Jawaun Campbell Jacksonville State
LB Jaylen Sneed Notre Dame
LB TyQuan King UConn
LB Kolbe Fields Louisiana Tech
CB Christian Gray Notre Dame
CB Leonard Moore Notre Dame
S Adon Shuler Notre Dame
S CJ Brown Sam Houston State

1st Team Specialists 

Position Name School
K Chris Freeman UConn
P James Rendell Notre Dame
Returner Kam Thomas UTEP

Figuring out where to put the Independent teams was a struggle. With only 2 remaining Independent teams, it does not make sense to give them their own team, but it is also tough to take spots away from the true conference teams as well. For the preseason teams, we decided to put Notre Dame and UConn with the C-USA teams as it is a smaller conference and the majority of players from the 2024 All-CUSA have either graduated or transferred out. That being said, there is a strong possibility that Notre Dame and UConn will not be on any All-Conference teams when the postseason teams are announced.

 Jeremiyah Love, Christian Gray, Aamil Wagner, and Adon Shuler all made our Preseason All-American 1st or 2nd team. Notre Dame enters the season as a true title contender and as a result, their players are all over this team. Their offensive skill positions, defensive line, and secondary in particular are major areas of strength.

James Dawn II and Aaron Fenimore were excellent last year with Dawn II posting a Blown Block Rate of just 0.2% and Fenimore finishing Top-10 in the FBS in Total Points among centers. TyQuan King had 16 Total Points Above Average last season which is the top mark among returning C-USA defenders.