Preseason Awards, All-Conference Teams, and Predicted Order of Finish From Mountain West Media Days

It’s football season! Mountain West Media Days are officially underway as the league announced their favorites for the 2018 football season.

All-Conference team

Offense

QB-Brett Rypien (BSU)

RB-Alexander Mattison (BSU)

RB-Lexington Thomas (UNLV)

WR-Keesean Johnson (Fresno State)

WR-McLane Mannix (Nevada)

TE-Dax Raymond (Utah State)

OL-Ezra Cleveland (Boise State)

OL-John Molchon (Boise State)

OL-Aaron Jenkins (Utah State)

OL-Keith Ismael (SDSU)

OL-Tyler Roemer (SDSU)

Defense

DL-David Moa (Boise State)

DL-Curtis Weaver (Boise State)

DL-Yohanna Ghaifan (Wyoming)

DL-Carl Granderson (Wyoming)

LB-Jeffrey Allison (Fresno State)

LB-Jahlani Tavai (Hawaii)

LB-Malik Reed (Nevada)

DB-Tyler Horton (Boise State)

DB-Dameon Baber (Nevada)

DB-Tariq Thompson (SDSU)

DB-Andrew Wingard (Wyoming)

Special Teams

P-Ryan Stonehouse (Colorado State)

PK-Dominik Eberle (Utah State)

KR/PR-Avery Williams (Boise State)

Offensive Player of the Year-Brett Rypien (Boise State)

Defensive Player of the Year-Andrew Wingard (Wyoming)

Special Teams Player of the Year-Avery Williams (Boise State)

Predicted Order of Finish

Mountain

1-Boise State

2-Wyoming

3-Colorado State

4-Utah State

5-Air Force

6-New Mexico

West

1-Fresno State

2-San Diego State

3-UNLV

4-Nevada

5-Hawaii

6-San Jose State

How we fared

• We picked six Boise State players to be on the first team, the Broncos ended up with eight. Alexander Mattison and John Molchon were selected.
• We predicted all three special teams players correcctly.
• We predicted 9 out of 11 members of the defensive team.
• We predicted 8 out of 11 members of the offensive team.
• So, the MWConnection team predicted 20 out of the 25 selections. Not too far off.
• The team correctly place 24 out of the 25 on either the first or second team. Offensive lineman John Molchon was the only omission.
• We disagreed on defensive player of the year, our team selected Granderson. My guess is that this one was probably pretty close.

A few takeaways...

• Boise State is clearly the favorite to win the conference. They were a unanimous selection to win their division and had nearly a third of the all-conference team with eight selections.
• Wyoming and Boise State each had three defensive selections. That game has the potential to be a battle in Laramie.
• Nevada had two selections on defense and one on offense, who saw that coming?

Do you agree with the selections? What changes would you make? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.