Charlotte 49ers DE Alex Highsmith makes AP All-America third team
Senior defensive end Alex Highsmith, who started his career with the Charlotte 49ers as a walk-on, is finishing up on the Associated Press All-American team.
Highsmith, who led Conference USA and is second nationally with 14 sacks this season, was named to the AP’s third team, the first time a Charlotte player has made the team in the program’s seven-year history.
Highsmith, with his 49ers teammates in the Bahamas this week for Friday’s Bahamas Bowl against Buffalo, is fourth nationally in tackles for loss (21.5) and also leads the league in that category. He set school records for sacks in a game (4.5), season (14) and career (20) and TFL in a game (5) and season (21.5) during the 2019 campaign. He has a career-high 68 tackles, a team-high eight quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.
The 49ers have a school-record 36 sacks this season. That ties for second in C-USA and is 15th nationally.
In Charlotte’s regular-season finale at Old Dominion, the 6-foot-3, 244-pound Highsmith had a career-high 12 tackles with school records for sacks (4.5) and tackles for loss (5).
As a junior last season, Highsmith was the country’s highest-graded edge defender in run defense (90.6), according to Pro Football Focus. His 17.5 tackles-for-loss ranked 16th nationally.
Highsmith arrived at Charlotte in 2016 as a walk-on from Wilmington’s Ashley High. The only offers Highsmith had received were from Football Championship Subdivision programs Davidson (which doesn’t have football scholarships) and Furman (which, he said, came with only a partial scholarship).
49ers notes
▪ Charlotte and Buffalo both arrived Monday at the Atlantis resort, where the teams are staying this week ahead of Friday’s game at Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium in Nassau.
The teams are allowed 15 days to practice for the game, but Charlotte coach Will Healy said the 49ers probably won’t use half of them. Exams and coaches traveling during a critical recruiting period have cut down on that. The 49ers had full practices over the two weekends since the regular-season ended.
“They’ve done a really good job when they’ve been asked to come back and lock back into football,” Healy said. “I want them to enjoy Atlantis. We’re not going to go over there and make it seem like a fall camp practice. We’ll have a couple of walk- throughs on the beach, have a ‘fast Friday’ practice on Thursday then go play on Friday.
“That’s why it’s been important to see how they’ve responded. They’ve come back and been a mature enough football team to say ‘We haven’t practiced all week, but now we have meetings, we have to get up early, have to go practice. I’m happy with how they’ve responded.”
▪ Healy said the 49ers’ headquarters for Wednesday’s opening day of early-signing day will be two cabanas on the beach at Atlantis. He said the resort’s water slide and “lazy river” will also be used in announcing the first of the program’s recruiting class of 2020.
The 49ers have the third-ranked recruiting class in Conference USA, according to 247 Sports recruiting website, behind Louisiana Tech and North Texas. Charlotte has also received a commitment from grad transfer running back Tre Harbison, who is coming off two consecutive 1,000-plus yard seasons at Northern Illinois.
▪ 49ers quarterback Chris Reynolds has averaged 349.0 yards in total offense during the 49ers’ current five-game winning streak. He’s thrown for 1,214 yards (242.8 per game) and nine touchdowns, and run for 531 yards (106.2 per game) and three touchdowns in the stretch.