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2023 Mountain West Football Championship: The Ten Most Important Players, Ranked
Both Boise State and UNLV will need some big performance to claim the crown. Who might they need to stand out the most on Saturday?
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Athletes abound.
10. UNLV linebacker Jackson Woodard
One thing that is almost certain to define Saturday’s result is whether or not the Rebels can remain stout against the run. In that regard, UNLV has not been the most disruptive team in the Mountain West all year long but Woodard has stepped up in recent weeks to lead the charge. He collected 4.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in the team’s last three games, and according to Pro Football Focus, he collected 16 total stops in November, which tied for third-most among conference defenders.
9. UNLV linebacker Marsel McDuffie
Pop quiz: Which defender playing in Saturday’s championship tilt ended November with the highest overall Pro Football Focus grade? If you guessed that this was a leading question to highlight McDuffie’s 77.2 mark, pat yourself on the back. He has been overlooked in the Rebels’ surge, but the sophomore has anchored the middle linebacker position all season and played his best ball in recent weeks.
To wit, he was one of only two Mountain West defenders to average double-digit tackles in November, missing just one tackle attempt (per PFF) while collecting 16 stops, an amount that tied with Woodard for third-most in that stretch. In other words, the Grand Prairie, Texas native is an under-the-radar Lone Star athlete in this game who could be ready for a star turn.
8. Boise State linebacker Andrew Simpson
In examining the statistics, few players in the Mountain West have been as unpredictable as the redshirt sophomore who’s made ten starts on the weak side this year. On the one hand, he’s emerged as a much-needed havoc generator for the Broncos defense, picking up a conference-high eight tackles for loss in November along with 2.5 sacks and, like McDuffie and Woodard above, 16 stops per PFF.
Unlike the two Rebels linebackers, though, Simpson also has a season-long missed tackle rate of 24.7% that is the fifth-highest mark among conference players at the position. They’ll need him to be on point against a UNLV rushing game that features two athletes, Vincent Davis and Jai’Den Thomas, who have combined to force 57 missed tackles this season.
7. Boise State punter James Ferguson-Reynolds
Despite leading the country with an average of 50.08 yards per punt and a net of 43.06 that ranks fifth, Ferguson-Reynolds somehow wasn’t named a Ray Guy Award finalist earlier this week. Surely, he’ll be motivated to prove to the voters that their oversight was foolish and be prepared to bail out the Broncos should they find themselves in a jam.
Ferguson-Reynolds’s prominence in flipping the field will come in handy on Saturday since UNLV has benefitted from some of the nation’s best field position week after week, facing a field that, on average, extends just 67.1 yards. For his part, Ferguson-Reynolds has launched 26 of his 49 punts more than 50 yards and pinned 22 of them inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, so that usual script gets rewritten, you can thank the Aussie sophomore for it.
6. UNLV wide receiver Jacob De Jesus
If that script looks like business as usual, though, it’ll probably be because De Jesus is running free. The former Modesto Junior College product has been the Mountain West’s top return specialist in 2023, leading the conference with 26.4 yards per kickoff return and 16.8 yards per punt return while finishing fifth overall with an average of 107.2 all-purpose yards per game. He’s also been handy as the Rebels’ primary slot receiver as well, managing 20 first downs on 46 receptions, so the Broncos will need to be mindful whenever the ball is in De Jesus’s hands.