Yale’s Abu Kamara earns second straight FCS preseason All-America nod

Abu Kamara’s place on the 2026 Stats Perform FCS Preseason All-America Team is more than another line on Yale’s resume. It gives the Bulldogs a proven defensive centerpiece at the exact moment the Ivy League is being judged on a national postseason stage, with the preseason team spanning all 13 FCS conferences, 53 schools and 101 players.

Kamara earned first-team honors for the second straight year, a clear sign that his production has stayed at the top of the subdivision. His 2025 season was the kind that bends games: 76 tackles, 40 solo stops, 6.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, two interceptions, 13 pass breakups, one blocked kick and two defensive touchdowns. That blend of volume and playmaking made him a unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection and the unanimous winner of the Asa S. Bushnell Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The national recognition has piled up around that profile. Kamara was an AP Honorable Mention All-American in 2024, later became an AFCA All-American, earned Stats Perform All-America and FCS Football Central recognition, and finished last season as a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, which honors the FCS defensive player of the year. For a defensive back, the ability to change field position, create turnovers and score twice on defense is rare enough to make him a true matchup problem.

His value rises even further because Yale’s defense already showed it could travel in the playoff bracket. The Bulldogs allowed 17.2 points per game in 2025, best in the Ivy League and eighth in the FCS, then finished 8-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play to claim a share of the league title. Yale followed that with the Ivy League’s first-ever automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, a breakthrough made possible after the Ivy League Council of Presidents approved playoff participation on Dec. 18, 2024 for the 2025 season.

That decision came after a year-long process started by the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Ivy League executive director Robin Harris called it “a new chapter,” while Yale SAAC chair Mason Shipp, who wrote the proposal, told the next wave of playoff teams to “go win us some hardware.” Yale already has evidence that the new era is real: it rallied from a 35-7 halftime deficit to beat No. 15 Youngstown State in the first round before falling to No. 2 Montana State in the second round.

For Yale, Kamara is the kind of impact defender who can turn Ivy credibility into postseason relevance. In a league now under far more national scrutiny, he is the player most likely to decide whether the Bulldogs are just in the conversation or capable of making another run.