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Mountain West Football: How I Voted On The Official Preseason Ballot
After ten years of writing about Mountain West football, here are my first picks for the official all-conference team and order of finish.
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Breaking it all down.
Last week here at Mountain West Wire, we unveiled our staff’s picks for the preseason all-conference team and projected order of finish in a post-divisions world. As the person who has put those together since our site’s launch in 2017, I can tell you that getting a sense of what everyone else is thinking ahead of another college football season is one of the most satisfying conversations of the entire calendar year, but having the opportunity to contribute to the Mountain West’s official predictions for the first time, after a decade of writing about football across the conference, was a real privilege.
It also opened my eyes to just how different our process is compared to that of the Mountain West: For instance, if memory serves, the official All-Mountain West ballot had just six quarterbacks to choose from while the one I created for our writers this year has 15. I always put every feasible option on the table for every position and, thankfully, no one so far has been crippled by choice paralysis, but it did help me understand how our choices can sometimes differ from the conference media at large.
With that in mind, here are the players I picked for the official ballot, as well as my sense of how the Mountain West will shake out in 2023.
Note: Players are listed by order of priority at each position, as per the regulations of the official voting process.
All-Mountain West Offense
QB – Taylen Green, Boise State
RB – George Holani, Boise State
RB – John Lee Eldridge III, Air Force
WR – Tory Horton, Colorado State
WR – Justin Lockhart, San Jose State
WR – Terrell Vaughn, Utah State
TE – Treyton Welch, Wyoming
OL – Thor Paglialong, Air Force
OL – Cade Beresford, Boise State
OL – Garrett Curran, Boise State
OL – Eliki Tanuvasa, Hawaii
OL – Frank Crum, Wyoming
You may recall that, in the conversation about last year’s all-conference ballot, it was revealed that former Boise State quarterback Hank Bachmeier was not a voting option because he had not received any kind of postseason accolade the previous year, in keeping with that program’s protocols for this annual exercise. Every team’s justification for putting forth nominees (or not) is surely a little bit different, but it did lead to some mild disappointment on my part that a pair of Air Force offensive linemen for whom I would have voted, Wesley Ndago and Kaleb Holcomb, were unavailable.
Beyond the offensive line, where Wyoming center Nofoafia Tulafono was a painful cut, I didn’t really feel a lot of angst when making my other choices. I think Green has the capacity to be special — more on that in a minute — and I’m confident that Lockhart and Vaughn will be able to step up as their team’s respective top pass catchers.
All-Mountain West Defense
DL – Mohamed Kamara, Colorado State
DL – Cole Godbout, Wyoming
DL – DeVonne Harris, Wyoming
DL – Jordan Bertagnole, Wyoming
LB – Cody Moon, San Diego State
LB – Easton Gibbs, Wyoming
LB – DJ Schramm, Boise State
LB – Levelle Bailey, Fresno State
DB – Camby Goff, Air Force
DB – Trey Taylor, Air Force
DB – Chigozie Anusiem, Colorado State
DB – Morice Norris Jr., Fresno State
In spite of the significant number of departures across the conference on this side of the ball, it wasn’t all that hard to pick out whom I thought would be the best of the best when all is said and done. Wyoming’s defensive line could be absurd if everyone stays healthy and the Mountain West is still flush with talented linebackers.
One player whom I think is a significant omission from the ballot is Fresno State cornerback Cam Lockridge; he would’ve had my vote if he was present, though that would’ve presented the problem of selecting among five players for four spots. Norris would be my pick as the conference’s top flex piece — your nickelbacks, AZTECs, LOBOs, and so on — which might come as a surprise to many. Just watch, though, because I think he’ll be a key cog in that Bulldogs secondary.
All-Mountain West Special Teams
PK – Jonah Dalmas, Boise State
P – Jack Browning, San Diego State
PR – Tory Horton, Colorado State
KR – Christian Washington, New Mexico
Though we won’t ever know the exact results, I suspect the voting for kicker and punter will be decided by a very close margin because while the Mountain West isn’t quite as stacked with specialists as in other recent years, it’s not hard to make a case for the likes of Nevada’s Brandon Talton, New Mexico’s Aaron Rodriguez, or Wyoming’s John Hoyland.