SI All-American Football Candidates in New Mexico

SI All-American's watch list of the top seniors (the class of 2021) in the state of New Mexico

Two high school football players from the state of New Mexico are on the watch list for the Sports Illustrated All-American team for 2020, SI.com announced today.

In all, 1,000 players from across the nation have been selected to the watch list. Video highlights, scouting analyses and a list of each player’s college verbal commitment and/or top college contenders can be found on their bio pages, broken down by state, at SIAllAmerican.com.

The New Mexico honorees are:

• Sam Carrell - 6-4 / 254 / DE/TE from Albuquerque, N.M. (Sandia High)
• Tyler Kiehne - 6-3 / 240 / DE from Los Lunas, N.M.

Kiehne, the 2019 All-Metro Player of the Year, verbally committed to UCLA last month. Carrell, a two-way player and multi-sport athlete, verbally committed to Baylor in April.

The SIAA evaluation process will continue throughout the season “until the list of 1,000 contenders coalesces around just 25 young men who can say proudly they are the best of the best -- they are Sports Illustrated All-Americans,” said SI Director of Football Recruiting John Garcia Jr.

For a breakdown of which of the 1,000 SIAA nominees have verbally committed to or are considering Power 5 schools in the region as their college choice, head to:

• Arizona
• Arizona State
• Colorado
• Texas Tech
• Utah

Sports Illustrated will narrow the SIAA candidates to 250 in October, 99 in November and then announce a first-team of 25, second-team of 25 and an honorable mention group in December. The first-team selections will be invited to the SI Sportsperson of the Year banquet.

Over the coming weeks, SI will unveil its preseason top 10 for each of 14 position groups (kicking off with quarterbacks this week). SI will unveil its initial preseason top 99 ranking, the SI99, on August 24.