The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Ten Longhorns earn All-Big 12 honors
12.02.2002 | Football
DALLAS-- Ten members of the ninth-ranked Texas Longhorns football team have been named to the coaches' All-Big 12 Conference teams.
Senior CB Rod Babers (Houston, Texas), senior OG/T Derrick Dockery (Garland, Texas), sophomore LB Derrick Johnson (Waco, Texas), senior DE Cory Redding (Houston, Texas) and junior Roy Williams (Odessa, Texas) were first-team selections. Redding and Williams earned first-team honors for the second consecutive year.
Babers has posted a career-high 42 tackles (30 solo) and 20 pass breakups (leads team/T-No. 4 on UT's single-season chart) this season. A starter in each of UT's last 37 games, he also has recorded a pair of interceptions (one returned 73 yards for a TD) and three TFLs. The Thorpe Award semifinalist is the leader of a Longhorns secondary that has allowed a Big 12-best 162.8 passing yards per game (No. 10 NCAA) and ranks third in the conference and 11th nationally in pass efficiency defense (98.3 rtg).
Dockery, who has seen action at both right guard and tackle this season, has been a force on the Longhorns offensive line. He is a key member of a UT offense that ranks fifth in the Big 12 and 15th nationally in scoring offense (33.7 ppg.). Dockery, who has not allowed a sack this year, has allowed QB Chris Simms to throw for 2,938 yards (No. 2 on UT's single-season list) and a school-record 24 touchdowns. He also has helped open holes for the Longhorns' eighth consecutive 1,000-yard rusher in sophomore Cedric Benson this season (1,247 yards/No. 7 on UT's single-season chart).
Johnson, the 2001 Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year, ranks second on the team with 110 tackles (team-high 71 solo) and third with three interceptions. He also has registered 10 TFLs (-25 yards), a pair of sacks, 10 QB pressures and nine pass breakups. The Butkus Award semifinalist has racked up a team-high five 10-tackle efforts this season.
Redding, one of four finalists for the Lombardi and Hendricks awards, is the leader of a Longhorns defense that ranks second in the conference in total (296.6 ypg/12th NCAA) and scoring defense (16.0/seventh NCAA). The 2001 second-team All-American ranks fourth on the team with 66 tackles and leads the squad with 20 TFLs (T-No. 6 on UT's single-season list), 7.5 sacks, 36 QB pressures (T-No. 8 on UT's single-season chart), three forced fumbles and a pair fumble recoveries. He has posted a sack in the last seven contests.
Williams has caught 60 passes for 1,000 yards (only the third 1,000-yard campaign in UT history) and a school-record 11 TDs this season. The Biletnikoff semifinalist who has caught at least one pass in a school-record 33 consecutive games, also has run four reverses for 46 yards. In his last four games, he has caught 35 passes for 599 yards (17.1 ypc) and eight TDs, all of which have been 100-yard performances (tying Mike Adams' UT record set in 1993).
Junior CB Nathan Vasher (15 PBUs, four interceptions) was the Longhorns lone representative on the second team and also was the coaches' third-team kick returner (14.2 punt return average/16th NCAA). Sophomore RB Cedric Benson (1,247 yards, 11 TDs) and Simms were third-team choices, while senior OT Robbie Doane (25 consecutive starts) and junior WR B.J. Johnson (39 receptions for 601 yards and five TDs) were honorable mention selections.
