Rowe Named Second Team All-American

San Diego State wide receiver Patrick Rowe’s scrapbook season continued Wednesday when he was named to the second team of the Associated Press All-American team.

In Aztec history, only wide receiver Webster Slaughter (second team, 1985) and offensive guard Pete Inge (second team, 1978, 1979) have placed that highly on the AP team. Defensive back Henry Williams was named second team to the United Press International’s All-American team in 1978.

Rowe, a junior, and Miami’s Wesley Carroll are AP’s second-team wide receivers. The two named to the first team are Virginia’s Herman Moore and Florida State’s Lawrence Dawsey.

“I’m just overjoyed,” Rowe said. “I felt quite honored because it was one of my preseason goals.”

It turns out that when Rowe met with Curtis Johnson, SDSU receivers’ coach, before the season, he listed “honorable mention, All-American” as one of the things he would like to accomplish.

“I put ‘honorable mention’ as a starting base,” Rowe said. “And to (be) second team, that’s quite an honor.”

But as far as AP goes, Rowe never could have made honorable mention. The wire service did away with the honorable mention portion of its All-American team last season. It names three teams.

“He deserves it. He works hard. He had a hell of a year,” said quarterback Dan McGwire, who was bypassed in favor of Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer, Virginia’s Shawn Moore and Houston’s David Klingler.

Rowe finished the season with 71 passes caught for 1,392 yards and eight touchdowns. He led the nation with an average of 126.55 receiving yards per game and was fifth with 6.45 receptions per game. He set the NCAA record with nine consecutive games in which he had 100 or more yards receiving, surpassing the previous record of eight held by Howard Twilley (Tulsa, 1965) and Henry Ellard (Fresno State, 1982), and he and Dennis Arey became only the second receiving tandem in NCAA history to each have more than 1,000 yards receiving.

Rowe’s 1,392 yards receiving also set Western Athletic Conference and SDSU single-season records.

According to Gary Johnson of the NCAA, Rowe’s nine consecutive games with more than 100 yards receiving is considered a single-season record, and if he continues his streak into next season it will be considered as a career record. The NCAA currently does not have a category for consecutive 100-yard games in a career.

Rowe, who was named to the all-WAC team last month, said he will return to SDSU next season and bypass the NFL draft.

“I want to stay at State and get another year of experience and have another year of school,” he said.

And, he said, second-team All-America status still leaves room for improvement.

“It leaves a lot of hard work,” he said. “It makes me want to become first team, now.”

The players were selected by AP sports editor Darrell Christian, college football writer Rick Warner and regional AP sports writers.