Hurricanes

Two UM football players earn preseason All-America honors, as does one FAU player.

Florida Atlantic running back Devin “Motor” Singletary surely won’t sneak up on the opposition this season.

After breaking nearly every school rushing record last year, Singletary on Tuesday was named to the preseason All-America second team by Athlon Sports. The first-team selections were Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin), Bryce Love (Stanford) and Myles Gaskin (Washington).

A junior, Singletary ran for 1,920 yards and a nationleading 32 touchdowns. He helped lead the Owls to an 11-3 record and a victory against Akron in the Boca Raton Bowl. After winning the Conference USA Most Valuable Player award, Singletary was named to the All-America third team by the Associated Press. He is the first player in school history to receive the honor.

Singletary, who already holds the school’s career touchdowns record with 44, needs just 589 yards to break the FAU rushing mark. Alfred Morris set the record of 3,529 from 2008-11.

The selection is the latest in a long list of preseason honors for Singletary, who played at American Heritage-Delray. He and linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair were recently named to Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 players list. Singletary ranked No. 20 while Al-Shaair was No. 79.

A senior, Al-Shaair is FAU’s all-time tackling leader with 354. Last year Al-Shaair’s 147 tackles ranked fifth nationally.

Both players are expected to play key roles in the most anticipated season in Owls history. They have the nation’s second-longest winning streak at 10 games, but will put it on the line in the season-opener Sept. 1 at Oklahoma.