2013 Mountain West preseason all-conference team announced

The first big news at the Mountain West football media days dropped with the media's selection of the preseason all-conference teams. The quarterback position was to be contested between Fresno State's Derek Carr and newcomer David Fales of San Jose State, but the media went with the reigning 2012 offensive player of the year in Carr.

The defensive award was a bit more convoluted and my opinion thought that it would be Boise State's Demarcus Lawrence who had a great year in 2012, but the honor for preseason defensive player of the year went to Fresno State defensive back Derron Smith.

By no means is Smith a bad selection, he did have six interceptions with one returned for a touchdown and had 79 tackles. Lawrence was a force in getting behind the line of scrimmage with 13.5 tackles for a loss and 8.5 sacks, plus he missed out on two games this past year.

Fresno State led all teams with seven selections and they were followed by San Jose State who had five and Boise State had four selections. Defending tri-conference champions Boise State and San Diego State each had three.

With Fresno Sate landing seven first team members it would make sense that they would be the favorites to win the West division and the conference overall, but my sneaking suspicion is that Boise State will be crowned the preseason Mountain West champion.