Not a single Aggie selected to the preseason all-conference team- offense, defense, or specialist.

Pin this up immediately coaches.


2022 MOUNTAIN WEST FOOTBALL PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

Offense
QB - Jake Haener**, Sr., Fresno State
WR - Jalen Cropper**, Sr., Fresno State
WR - Jesse Matthews, Sr., San Diego State
RB - Brad Roberts*, Sr., Air Force
RB - Jordan Mims, Sr., Fresno State
OL - Isaac Cochran, Sr., Air Force
OL - John Ojukwu*, Sr., Boise State
OL - Dontae Bull, Sr., Fresno State
OL - Aaron Frost**, Sr., Nevada
OL - Alama Uluave, Sr., San Diego State
TE - Tanner Arkin, RS-Fr., Colorado State

Defense
DL - Scott Matlock, Sr., Boise State
DL - Keshawn Banks**, Sr., San Diego State
DL - Jonah Tavai, Sr., San Diego State
DL - Viliami Fehoko*, Sr., San José State
DL - Cade Hall, Sr., San José State
LB - Vince Sanford**, Sr., Air Force
LB - Caden McDonald*, Sr., San Diego State
LB - Kyle Harmon*, Sr., San José State
DB - JL Skinner**, Sr., Boise State
DB - Evan Williams*, Sr., Fresno State
DB - Jerrick Reed II, Sr., New Mexico
DB - Patrick McMorris*, Sr., San Diego State

Specialists
P - Aaron Rodriguez, Jr., New Mexico
PK - Jonah Dalmas*, Jr., Boise State
PR - Jordan Byrd, Sr., San Diego State
KR - Jordan Byrd*, Sr., San Diego State

Offensive Preseason Player of the Year: Jake Haener, Sr., QB, Fresno State
Co-Defensive Preseason Player of the Year: Patrick McMorris, Sr., DB, San Diego State and Cade Hall, Sr., DL, San José State
Special Teams Preseason Player of the Year: Jordan Byrd, Sr., PR/KR, San Diego State

We are keeping illustrious company with Hawaii, UNLV, and Wyoming in not having a single player selected.

A San Diego St receiver as preseason first team is almost as bad as selecting an Air Force receiver. I guarantee we’ll have a receiver go first team offense at the end of the season.

I felt slighted by this too, but let's actually look into specifics. Who from USU should be on this list over which player?

Provide that and then I'll dive into the details of the quantitative and qualitative information and see if USU really was slighted here.

Alfred Edwards and Stephen Kotsanlee probably have the best arguments to be first-team.

I bet you'll see Hale Motu'apuaka, Brian Cobbs, Calvin Tyler Jr., maybe Ajani Carter and Byron Vaughns challenge for first-team spots by the end of the year.

Don't worry guys, by the end of the year the entire Aztec team will come down with covid and wont be able to play in the MWC championship game. Believe me LOL

ViAggie wrote: ↑

July 21st, 2022, 2:26 pm

Don't worry guys, by the end of the year the entire Aztec team will come down with covid and wont be able to play in the MWC championship game. Believe me LOL

They already used their covid excuse, so this year they will have to use monkeypox.

bwcrc wrote: ↑

July 21st, 2022, 1:49 pm

We are keeping illustrious company with Hawaii, UNLV, and Wyoming in not having a single player selected.

I keep trying to tell you guys the conference hates us but.........

Nothing to lose and everything to gain… again. Worked fairly well last year.

On a different note, I saw USU post some photos from the media days. Logan Bonner looks *a lot* more fit than last season. I would even say that at some points last season he looked downright pudgy (maybe because he was injured a couple of times and it precluded conditioning during those times?). But the photos from media days have him looking quite lean.

jpswensen wrote: ↑

July 21st, 2022, 3:16 pm

On a different note, I saw USU post some photos from the media days. Logan Bonner looks *a lot* more fit than last season. I would even say that at some points last season he looked downright pudgy (maybe because he was injured a couple of times and it precluded conditioning during those times?). But the photos from media days have him looking quite lean.

It is a serious workout lugging around a Championship Ring on your hand all day. Probably contributed a bit

Haven't seen him play yet but I'm excited to watch Gurvan Hall. Safety is an impact position and for some reason I think he'll make some noise this season. I could be off but I've got some optimism there.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

I found this tweet interesting. MWCWire asking who got “slighted” in the preseason teams.
When folks following other MW teams notice the absence….

I totally agree with not putting Gurvan Hall & Brian Cobbs on there. You can't put guys on there that haven't even played one down of football in the conference before.

Calvin Tyler may have a bit of a gripe. He's definitely behind Brad Roberts, AFA, who led the conference in rushing last year. But the other selection was Jordan Mims from Fresno. Calvin Tyler rushed for 170 more yards than him last year, but Mims was behind another Fresno RB that is now gone, and Mims averaged 1.1 more yards per carry last season.

As far as WR's, Jalen Cropper is the top returning receiving in the MWC with yards caught last season and is Fresno's #1 guy. The other guy is SDSU's #1 receiver that is really good, and all the USU people ahead of him graduated.

For the O-line I have no real idea how to judge that or the expertise. Though there's likely an argument for Alfred Edwards.

On Defense, I found what I consider to be an actual slight. Cade Hall from SJSU over Byron Vaughns. Vaughns has better stats & we were the MWC champs last year. He should've gotten the nod. To be honest Vaughns has a grip over Keshawn Banks from SDSU as well.

I looked at the LB's and AJV over SDSU's Caden Mcdonald is the closest but Mcdonald still probably has the edge. AJV had 5 more tackles, but Mcdonald had more Solo tackles and had 1.5 more sacks last season on a better defense. Mcdonald was also MWC 1st team last year.

For the DB's, all the players listed had better stats than Hunter Reynolds last season, but there's a real argument for Reynolds over Jerrick Reed from New Mexico. Reed's numbers were only slightly better. Reynolds was on a better defense.



So in summary,

Byron Vaughns was snubbed and there's an argument to be made for Hunter Reynolds. Alfred Edwards also likely has an argument.

I didn't look into special teams.

Good breakdown Roy. Only one or two Aggies are even in the conversation for 1st team pre-season all conference. Hopefully several earn their way on the post season teams. I do think the punter they chose was a bit of a stretch. The Lobo punter made the team purely on the fact that he had to punt a ridiculous number of times.

Nice that the only MWC punter to make the Ray Guy Award watch list wasn't selected as the 1st team pre-season punter.

Congrats to Stephen Kotsanlee for making the list. The recognition is well-deserved.

https://mwwire.com/2022/07/27/utah-stat ... atch-list/

Time to go kick some a - -