SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University senior football center Brandon Fusco received his third Division II Preseason All-America honor Tuesday when he was named as a first-team selection by D2Football.com.

The D2FB.com honor came on the heels of Fusco being named a first-team Preseason All-America performer by Consensus Draft Services and earning a spot on the Sporting News' Division II preseason team.

The Preseason All-America honors confirm the 6-foot-5, 300-pound Cranberry Township resident and Seneca Valley High School graduate is "on the radar screens" of NFL teams and are the latest additions to an already impressive collection of citations earned by Fusco.

He received second-team postseason All-America honors last fall from Don Hansen's Football Gazette after being named as a first-team All-Super Region One performer by both the Football Gazette and Daktronics Inc. He also finished third in the regional balloting for the Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year Award, received first-team All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division status for the second consecutive season and was named as The Rock's 2009 Offensive MVP.

Fusco, who earned third-team Football Gazette all-region honors as a sophomore in 2008, has been a starter at center for all three of his collegiate campaigns after being redshirted as a true freshman in 2006. He was the mainstay of a Rock offensive line that led the way to the Green and White ranking sixth in the PSAC in rushing offense (146.36 yards per game) and eighth in scoring offense (25.2 points per game) in 2009.

Fusco is one of four Rock starting offensive linemen returning for the 2010 season from a squad that finished the 2009 season with a 6-5 record.

The Rock opens its 2010 season with a Thursday night, Sept. 2 home game vs. Merrimack College on Bob DiSpirito Field at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.