O’Connell, Andersen among HERO Sports All-America picks

A total of 13 players from Montana and Montana State are All-America selections by HERO Sports for 2021, and to no one’s surprise Buck Buchanan Award finalists Patrick O’Connell of Montana and Troy Andersen of Montana State are first-team picks.

O’Connell, a Glacier High graduate, ended up with 14 sacks with the 10-3 Grizzlies, whose season ended Friday night with a 28-6 loss to James Madison in the FCS quarterfinals. O’Connell had 105 tackles from his linebacker spot.

Andersen, a senior linebacker out of Dillon, leads the 11-2 Bobcats in tackles with 127, 11 coming in MSU’s 42-19 shellacking of top-seeded Sam Houston Saturday in the quarterfinals.

He also has two interceptions, 13 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and two sacks.

A total of two Bobcats and three Grizzlies garnered first-team honors: defensive end Daniel Hardy joined Andersen for MSU; cornerback Justin Ford and punter Brian Buschini were honored alongside O’Connell at linebacker for Montana.

Ford had a remarkable run of eight straight games with an interception, finished the season with nine, returned two for touchdowns and scored a third defensive TD on a fumble return.

Buschini, a freshman walk-on out of Helena Capital, was third in the FCS with a 46.0-yard average, breaking the school mark set in 1985 by Mike Rice (44.7). He was named the FCS Punter of the Year Monday by the Augusta Sports Council, which also sponsors the Ray Gay Award.

Hardy has piled up 20.5 tackles for the Cats, who beat top-seeded Sam Houston 42-19 Saturday in a quarterfinal game. MSU will host South Dakota State in an FCS semifinal this Saturday at noon. His also has 14 sacks and a forced fumble.

Making second team for the Cats was Isaiah Ifanse at running back and Lewis Kidd on the offensive line. Montana had two make the second team for special teams: long snapper Matthew O’Donoghue and kick returner Malik Flowers.

Third-team selections were defensive tackle Chase Benson for MSU, and safety Robby Hauck, linebacker Jace Lewis and kicker Kevin Macias for the Grizzlies.

In all, 105 players were honored; the complete list can be found on Page B2. Voters selected 15 players to the first-team offense, 15 to defense and four in the kicking game.

Among the 34 first-team picks were a total of eight Big Sky players, including Payton Award finalist Eric Barriere of Eastern Washington, offensive lineman Braxton Jones of Southern Utah and defensive lineman Josiah Erickson of Sacramento State. A total of 39 Big Sky players were named to the first, second or third team.

In addition, the Grizzlies had three more players honored as Freshman or Sophomore All-America selections. Tight end Cole Grossman and Buschini made the freshman teams and defensive tackle Alex Gubner is on the sophomore squad.

All the All-American teams can be found at herosports.com.