Roscoe Nance, a graduate of Tuskegee University, is a 44-year veteran sportswriter. Nance has written for The Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.), The Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Miss.) and USA TODAY newspapers during his 44-year career as a sports journalist, during which he covered Black College football extensively. He retired from USA TODAY in 2007 after 21 years, but continues to cover Black College football and his work appears on several media websites. The opinions expressed here are his own, not those of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.



Two weeks have passed since STATS announced its 2019 Preseason FCS All-America Team, and the idea that Caylin Newton was named to the third team as an “athlete” remains as baffling as ever.
 
Newton, a junior, is a gifted athlete who has played amazingly well in his two seasons as Howard University’s starting quarterback, and he should be recognized at that position or not at all. It’s the only position he has played during his college career, and a case can be made that few, if any, of his peers played it better.
 
Newton was the 2017 MEAC Rookie of the Year, its Offensive Player of the Year in 2018 when he was among the FCS statistical leaders in a number of categories, and he’s the preseason pick to be his conference’s top offensive player again this season. He was also a finalist for the 2019 Black College Football Hall of Fame Deacon Jones Award that goes to the top player among HBCUs, and he is on the watch list for this season’s award.
 
Additionally, Newton is on the watch list for the Walter Payton Award that goes to the top offensive player in the FCS.
 
All of those honors have come Newton’s way as a result of his quarterback play, not because of his ability to play multiple positions, or his prowess as a kick returner/wide receiver – characteristics normally associated with the “athlete” designation. He did play defensive back in high school, Mike London, Howard’s coach Newton’s freshman and sophomore seasons, had fleeting thoughts of using him in the defensive secondary, but the idea never came to fruition.
 
That raises the question why the STATS staff, which chose the All-America Team, made the decision it did. That is particularly so when the first and second team “athlete” picks – Shane Simpson of Towson, Troy Andersen of Montana State and Kentel Williams of Austin Peay – are factored into the equation. Each of them fills multiple roles for his team and Andersen plays multiple positions.
 
Simpson is a senior running back and a first team STATS pick. He was second in the FCS in 2018 with 171.5 all-purpose yards (711 rushing, 887 on kickoff returns, 104 on punt returns and 356 receiving for a total 2,058) in 2017, and he was the CAA Special Teams Player of the Year after totaling 991 combined kick return yards.
 
Andersen, also on the first team, rushed for 1,412 yards as the Bobcats’ quarterback as a sophomore last season and was named All-Big Sky. He started at running back in 2017; this season, he is expected to line up primarily at outside linebacker and play on offense at times after being picked to the 2019 preseason All-Big Sky team at fullback. He was the 2017 Big Sky Freshman of the Year after starting at linebacker and running back

Williams is a another senior and a second-teamer. He led the FCS last season with a799 yards per carry average, and he rushed for 831 yards; he also returned 24 kickoffs for 547 yards and caught 17 passes for 127 yards and was third in the FCS with 167.78 all-purpose yards, tops in the OVC.

Given the many ways that trio contributes to their teams, their selections as “athletes” makes sense. Newton’s selection doesn’t. It’s an insult, a slap in the face. Spare me. 
 
Newton has been nothing less than sensational from the first time he stepped under center for Howard. He amassed 330 yards total offense –190 rushing, 140 passing – in his debut as the Bison upset UNLV 43-40 in the 2017 season opener. The Associated Press called the Bison’s win the biggest upset in college football history for a game with a point spread. The Bison entered the contest as 45-point underdogs.
 
STATS Senior Editor Craig Haley, who oversees the staff that selected the preseason team, has a lame excuse for Newton’s selection as an “athlete.” Haley said Newton essentially got caught up in a numbers game because there was a crowded field at the quarterback position. But since he is a dual-threat quarterback, the panel slotted him as an “athlete.”
 
That reasoning doesn’t pass muster, simply because there is no such position as “athlete’’ on a football team.
 
Conversations with several coaches and others who have been involved in college football for a number of years confirmed the term “athlete” is used exclusively in recruiting. It’s the designation that coaches universally apply to signees when they are uncertain of which position they will play.

Haley’s rebuttal was, “He wouldn’t have made the team at quarterback. We wanted to put him on the team, and we were pleased to put him on the team.”
 
That sounds like somebody thought they were doing Newton a favor. Actually, what they were doing was labeling Newton as being something less than a true signalcaller, a field general and all the other adjectives associated with the quarterback position.
 
Haley may as well have said, “What are you complaining about? You should be happy he is on the team at any position.”
 
Make no mistake, being named to any All-America Team is an honor that most college student-athletes will never experience.  Those who earn that honor are likely to cherish it for the rest of their lives. But how meaningful is it when it comes for being named to a position that doesn’t exist and that you have never played if it did exist?
 
Why not give credit where credit is due? Just like STATS named two “athletes” to the first team, STATS could have named two quarterbacks to any of the three teams, or it could have left Newton off the team altogether.
 
That would have been okay because sometimes nothing is better than not enough.
 
In this instance, Newton being named to the third team as an “athlete” clearly is not enough.