LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – For the first time ever, UNLV saw two of its football players named in the same season as part of the AP All-America Teams, which were announced by the news agency Monday.
 
Kicker Jose Pizano was named to the second team while wide receiver Ricky White III was a member of the third team. The most recent Rebel to make an AP first, second or third team was safety Jamaal Brimmer, who was tabbed third team in 2004. Pizano is the first kicker from the school to be named AP All-America while White is the second receiver to hold the honor, joining second-teamer Jim Sandusky in 1981.
 
Pizano (piz-AH-no), who also was named First Team All-America by the FWAA and Second Team All-America by the Walter Camp Foundation and Sports Illustrated, is a Super Senior who joined the Rebels after transferring from FCS program Missouri State. The native of Lehi, Utah, has shattered the UNLV record book this fall, setting new marks for field goals in a game (six) and a season (25), kicking points in a game (19) and a season (127) while also breaking the Rebel record for consecutive field goals made with 19.
 
The 2023 Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year was one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award, which annually goes to the nation's top kicker. He currently sits 25-of-27 in field-goal attempts (with a long of 52) and 52-for-52 in extra points. Pizano has hit two game-winning field goals this season (vs. Vanderbilt and Colorado State) en route to earning Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week three times.
 
White, who joined the program in 2022 after transferring from Michigan State, is a junior from Marietta, Georgia. The First Team All-Mountain West performer, who was previously named Second Team All-America by College Football Network, sits fourth in the nation with 1,386 receiving yards on 81 catches, including seven touchdowns. In conference play, he led the league in both receptions per game at 7.25 and receiving yards per game with an eye-popping 130.6.
 
White has already set two UNLV records in 2023, breaking Sandusky's 42-year-old mark for yards in a season and becoming the first Rebel to reach the 100-yard mark in receiving yards in five consecutive games. With the bowl game still left to play, he is seven catches away from tying Ryan Wolfe's UNLV single-season mark for receptions (88 set in 2008).
 
The Rebels (9-4) are preparing to play Kansas in the 2023 Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix on December 26. Ticket information is available at UNLVTickets.com.