Marshall wide receiver Xavier Gaines is on both the Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List and the 2021 College Football America Yearbook Preseason Conference USA Starting Lineup.
Gaines is one of six Conference USA players on the College Football America Yearbook Starting Lineup that also made it onto the Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List.
Gaines caught 28 passes for 404 yards and four touchdowns and earned Conference USA all-conference first team at tight end.
Marshall won the East Division, while UAB won the West Division. The UAB Blazers won the Conference USA Championship Game, 22-13, over Marshall.
The 2021 College Football America Yearbook features nine pages of Conference USA content, including an overall preview of the conference race, a spotlight piece on a stadium, the C-USA Starting Lineup, all team schedules and a half-page devoted to each program.
The College Football America 2021 Yearbook features more than 900 college football teams from the United States and Canada in more than 250 striking, full-color pages. That includes every team from the NCAA (FBS, FCS, Division II and Division III), NAIA, NJCAA, CCCAA and U Sports (Canada). It also includes updates on club football, one-year postgraduate prep/sports academies and Mexican college football, along with dozens of action shots and stadium photos taken by the CFA staff.
Only college seniors and fourth-year junior graduates are eligible for the Senior Bowl. Fourth-year junior graduates must have graduated by the December prior to the game to be eligible.
The Senior Bowl will be played on Feb. 5, 2022, in Mobile, Alabama. In the 2021 NFL Draft, 106 Senior Bowl players were drafted, with 36 of them taken in the first three rounds.
2021 College Football America Conference USA Preseason Starting Lineup
(Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List Players in Bold)
Offense
Pos. Player, School, Class
OFFENSE
QB Grant Wells, Marshall, Fr.
RB DeWayne McBride, UAB, So.
RB Sincere McCormick, UTSA, Jr.
WR Zakhari Franklin, UTSA, Jr.
WR Jacob Cowing, UTEP, So.
TE Xavier Gaines, Marshall, Sr.
OL Jacob Brammer, North Texas, Jr.
OL Spencer Burford, UTSA, Sr.
OL Cole Spencer, WKU, Jr.
OL Sidney Wells, UAB, Sr.
C Ahofitu Maka, UTSA, Sr.
Pos. Player, School, Class
DT Antonio Moultrie, UAB, Jr.
DT Dion Novil, North Texas, Sr.
DE Jaylen Joyner, FAU, So.
DE DeAngelo Malone, WKU, Sr.
LB Tyler Grubbs, LA Tech, Fr.
LB Trevor Harmanson, UTSA, Sr.
LB Noah Wilder, UAB, Sr.
CB Gregory Grate, Middle Tenn., Jr.
CB Kristopher Moll, UAB, Sr.
S Reed Blankenship, Middle Tenn., Sr.
S Rashad Wisdom, UTSA, Jr.
SPECIAL TEAMS
K Hunter Duplessis, UTSA, Sr.
P Lucas Dean, UTSA, Jr.
KR Lexington Joseph, FIU, So.
PR Talik Keaton, Marshall, So.
AP Jake Bailey, Rice, So.
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