On paper, it looks like a snub.

In reality, it is a sign of what is likely to come.

Despite finishing 5-2 in the PSAC West this season — one game behind co-champions Indiana and Mercyhurst — Slippery Rock University’s football team placed no one on the PSAC West first-team all-star squad this fall.

By comparison, Indiana placed nine on the first team, as did California — which finished fourth in the league and lost to SRU. Mercyhurst had four first-teamers, Edinboro, Gannon and Clarion two each, last-place Lock Haven one.

Yeah, that looks bad for The Rock.

But it’s not.

In truth, the 2012 Slippery Rock team truly was a team. No one player stood out all the way through.

Both quarterbacks — Nigel Barksdale and Jared Buck — produced big games. Senior running back Akeem Satterfield was hurt much of the year, still gained 823 yards and earned second team PSAC West honors.

Six other SRU players were named to the second team. Only one other one — defensive end Jeff Thompson — is a senior. In fact, The Rock is graduating only nine seniors from its roster.

Linebacker and leading tackler Gary Allen, with 91 stops, didn’t even gain second team all-conference honors.

No worries. That can be considered a snub and should motivate him even more for next year.

A bevy of returning receivers — highlighted by Ken Amos, LaQuinn Stephens-Howling and John Schademan — should make this unit fun to watch in 2013.

The Rock closed out the 2012 campaign with a 49-41 shootout loss to Bloomsburg. An earlier 56-49 shootout loss to Kutztown was also responsible for the team failing to match its 8-3 record of 2011.

That team graduated numerous seniors. This team doesn’t.

It’s been 14 years since SRU made its run to the NCAA Division II semifinals, losing 47-21 at Carson-Newman in Tennessee.

I remember that day well. After covering a Butler basketball game Friday night, photographer Dave Prelosky and I boarded a bus on the SRU campus and rode overnight to cover the football game that had a 12:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday.

Busy as it was, that weekend was well worth it.

Since then, The Rock lost in the first round of the 1999 playoffs and was denied playoff entry after stellar seasons on four occasions.

Seasons like 1998 cannot be taken for granted. They are hard to come by.

On paper, The Rock is primed to take a shot at such a run in 2013.

Time will tell whether that happens.

If it does, the seed of success will have been planted by Quindell Dean, Jaimire Dutrieuille, Anthony Saunders, Stephens-Howling, Derek Walker and others like them.

A bunch of second-teamers.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle