Colorado State University Athletics
Rams' Richburg earns first-team freshman All-America honors
12/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 14, 2010
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – As a freshman at Bushland High School in Texas, Weston Richburg was taking snaps as a quarterback.
Five years and nearly 100 pounds later, he’s earning national respect as a freshman on Colorado State’s offensive line. First, Mountain West Conference coaches and media selected him honorable-mention all-conference.
And on Tuesday, both CollegeFootballNews.com and national analyst Phil Steele named him the center on their respective first-team Freshman All-America squads.
Richburg, a 6-foot-4, 292-pound redshirt freshman from Bushland, Texas, started every game for the Rams in 2010, three at guard and the last nine at center, and did not have a bad snap all season. He posted a team-high 54 knockdown blocks and allowed only one sack all year, with no other pressures.
A computer science major, Richburg also led the team with 22 outstanding efforts and 12 “Meyer mauls,” the coveted game-film award distributed by offensive coordinator/line coach Pat Meyer, who says Richburg is tough enough to play on either side of the ball. The offensive line’s most valuable player in eight of 12 games, he graded out above 85 percent in all 12 contests.
A signal-caller in ninth grade, he sustained a knee injury and didn’t play as a prep sophomore or junior, then re-emerged as a senior offensive lineman to lead his Bushland team to an undefeated 2008 regular season.
One of the most respected players on the team, Richburg is the Rams’ first freshman All-American since Mychal Sisson, who also earned first-team honors in 2008. The coach that recruited Richburg to CSU, cornerbacks coach Tim Duffie, received the news just hours after his wife, Autumn, gave birth to a son.
