Brad Musso earns pre-season All-American accolades

Wheaton,

Ill. (7/27) - Wheaton College senior Brad Musso (Hinsdale,

Ill./Hinsdale Central) has been selected to the 2004

Football Gazette Division III Preseason All-American Football Team.

Musso, a starter for the past three seasons at wide receiver for the Thunder,

earned Second Team honors from the publication. Musso was selected to Football

Gazette's All-North Region First Team following the conclusion of the 2003

season. The Thunder wideout is a three-time College Conference of Illinois

and Wisconsin (CCIW) all-conference selection, earning Second Team honors

as a freshman and First Team accolades in his sophomore and junior seasons.

Last season Musso set Wheaton's single-season receiving yardage

record with 72 catches for 1,338 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was ranked 17th

in Division III last season with 102.9 receiving yards per game. In his three

seasons in Orange and Blue Musso has recorded 157 receptions for 2,994 yards

and 27 touchdowns. He is just six yards away from becoming the third player

in school history to record 3,000 or more receiving yards in a career and

is 607 yards away from passing Mark Loeffler 's school record of 3,601

yards in a career. Musso has caught at least one pass in Wheaton's last 27

games, just nine shy of tying the school record of 36 straight games with

a reception by David Lauber (1985-89).

Musso has also served as a punt and kick returner for the past

three seasons. Last year he returned 31 punts for 451 yards with two touchdowns,

setting school records for returns in a season, punt return yards in a season

and tying the record for touchdowns on punt returns in a year. He has collected

3,790 all-purpose yards in his career, just 394 yards from breaking Dane

Shaw 's (1993-96) school record of 4,183 all-purpose yards in a career.