A.T. Perry Voted to Preseason All-ACC Team

The annual ACC Media preseason awards were revealed this week, and redshirt junior A.T. Perry was Wake Forest’s only selection with 111 total votes.

Preseason awards are mostly a vote on how a player performed in the previous season, and Perry arguably had the best season of any Wake Forest receiver ever in 2021. In his breakout season, Perry set a program record with 15 receiving touchdowns (5th most in ACC history) and came just 37 yards shy of setting the program receiving yards record with 1,293 yards. He was also voted 1st team All-ACC and was a semi-finalist for the Biletnikoff award, which is given to the best receiver in all of college football. He finished the season off with a 10 reception, 127 yards, 1 TD performance in the Gator Bowl to help the Deacs hit 11 wins for the second time in school history.

While Perry was the only player from Wake Forest selected to the preseason All-ACC team, QB Sam Hartman did finish in second place for the preseason player of the year vote with 30 total votes. He also had one heck of a 2021 season, finishing with over 4,200 yards passing and 50 total touchdowns. You’ve probably heard this before, but Hartman is 1 of 3 ACC quarterbacks to finish a season with 50 or more total touchdowns, alongside Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson.

While it would have been great to have more players on the list, the preseason All-ACC team is really not very important and has no impact on the season at all. Keep in mind that every player who received a vote for Player of the Year at the end of the 2021 season got exactly 0 votes in the preseason poll. You can check out the full Preseason All-ACC team below.

Go Deacs!

Offense

QB Devin Leary, NC State (56)

RB Sean Tucker, Syracuse (125)

RB Will Shipley, Clemson (112)

WR Josh Downs, North Carolina (128)

WR A.T. Perry, Wake Forest (111)

WR Zay Flowers, Boston College (104)

TE Will Mallory, Miami (69)

AP Keytaon Thompson, Virginia (70)

OT Jordan McFadden, Clemson (127)

OT Zion Nelson, Miami (82)

OG Caleb Chandler, Louisville (104)

OG Christian Mahogany, Boston College (67)

C Grant Gibson, NC State (90)

Defense

DE Myles Murphy, Clemson (120)

DE Habakkuk Baldonado, Pitt (54)

DT Bryan Bresee, Clemson (116)

DT Calijah Kancey, Pitt (62)

LB Drake Thomas, NC State (92)

LB Trenton Simpson, Clemson (82)

LB Payton Wilson, NC State (60)

CB Kei’Trel Clark, Louisville (70)

CB Josh DeBerry, Boston College (65)

S Jammie Robinson, Florida State (93)

S Tanner Ingle, NC State (63)

Special Teams

PK B.T. Potter, Clemson (99)

P Lou Hedley, Miami (101)

SP Josh Downs, North Carolina (57)

Preseason Player of the Year

1. Devin Leary, QB, NC State (40)

2. Sam Hartman, QB, Wake Forest (30)

3. Tyler Van Dyke, QB, Miami (21)

4. Bryan Breese, DT, Clemson (14)

4-t. Brennan Armstrong, QB, Virginia (14)

6-t. Malik Cunningham, QB, Louisville (12)

6-t. Josh Downs, WR, North Carolina (12)

8. Sean Tucker, RB, Syracuse (11)

9. Myles Murphy, DT, Clemson (5)

10. Trenton Simpson, LB, Clemson (3)

11. Jammie Robinson, S, Florida State (2)