New Mexico's John Sullivan Named Walter Camp and Sporting News First Team All-America

Senior kicker leads the nation in field goals with a conference-record 26 this season

Dec. 6, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - New Mexico senior kicker John Sullivan has been named first-team All-America by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and by The Sporting News.

Sullivan is the third student-athlete from New Mexico and eighth from the Mountain West overall to receive Walter Camp All-America honors since the league's inception in 1999. He is the first Lobo to be named to The Sporting News list, and the MWC's sixth student-athlete to earn first-team All-America status from the publication.

A recent first-team all-Mountain West Conference honoree, Sullivan leads the nation in field goals, averaging 2.36 per game. He has set school and conference records with 26 field goals made this season in 11 games played. The fifth-year senior is 9-of-9 from 40 to 49 yards this year and his field goals have provided the winning margin in four games for the 8-4 Lobos in 2007.

A four-year walk-on, Sullivan was placed on scholarship in August of 2007, four months after suffering a torn ACL in his left plant leg during a kickoff drill in spring practice. He played his first football game since 2002 in the Lobos' season-opener at UTEP, but began his career 2-of-4 on field goals in a four-point UNM loss. Since that game he has made 24-of-25 field goals, including a school-record 18 straight, the second-longest streak in the nation this year.

New Mexico will play Nevada in New Mexico Bowl II on Saturday, Dec. 22. The game will be televised live on ESPN at 2:30 p.m. MT as the only game in its time slot.