Rimington Trophy Watch List Features Six Mountain West Lineman

The college football season doesn't kick off for another three months or so, but apparently there are enough award committees to keep the offseason intrigue consistent, the latest of which is the Rimington Trophy.

Unlike the Lott IMPACT watch list that preceded it, however, the Mountain West Conference is well represented in the hunt for the Rimington, which was won in 2013 by Florida State's Bryan Stork.  Six athletes make the cut this time around, most notably UNLV's Robert Waterman and Nevada's Matt Galas, who were also named to last year's list.  New Mexico's LaMar Bratton is the second straight Lobo to be so named, following Dillon Farrell.

The other three centers are San Jose State's David Peterson, San Diego State's Jordan Smith and, perhaps surprisingly, Air Force's Michael Husar.  Given the relative strength of teams like Boise State, Utah State and Fresno State, it says something about the depth of the position within the conference that all are absent here.  The six centers will carry plenty of responsibility for their team's fortunes, and we will see if any of them can follow the Aggies' Tyler Larsen as a finalist.