This year was in a word: weird. The Wonder Kid became Ben Olsen 2.0. The lefty duck thrower became a hero in our best win of the season (vs a bowl bound Utah State team). In another game, a backup quarterback came in and shredded our defense (which led to the starter also transferring). The normally solid Oregon State and Central Florida turned out to be really bad. We coughed the ball up 7 times against Utah, with the majority of those turnovers being unforced. Against TCU, our punter forgot how to catch snaps and BYU's Tim Tebow decided it was a good idea to throw the ball (he did this numerous times) when he was getting tackled by three or four people. We then played a bunch of WAC teams that nobody's ever heard of or ever will hear of, again. In the islands, we started off terrible and then regrouped and made a mockery of Hawaii. All this culminated into a wild 9-3 season that has us voted as the 26th best team in the nation. As with everyone else, I am not sure what I think about the season we've had. But, here are my awards and grades for the season.
Offensive MVP: Cody Hoffman. Hoffman finished the regular season with 53 catches for 821 yards and 7 touchdowns. While he struggled with Jake as the QB (no touchdowns in the first four games), Hoffman exploded over the latter half of the season and became our most consistent playmaker. He had some circus catches and knows how to use his height to his advantage. He also was solid as a kick returner, saving the day against UCF.
Defensive MVP: Kyle Van Noy. Van Noy was a beast, this season. He had 58 tackles (10 for a loss), 5 sacks, 3 picks for 79 yards, 2 forced fumbles, a fumble recovery for a TD to save the game at Ole Miss, and he even blocked a punt (later, to add insult to injury, he literally injured the punter). I think he could be a good NFL player if he beefs up some. He's fast, aggressive, athletic and just makes plays.
Special Teams MVP: JD Falslev. I was tempted to give this to Hoffman, as well. However, a colleague of mine and I just don't understand why Hoffman and Chambers before him look like they are running in slow motion the first ten yards of the return. JD played well and had a great return against TCU for a score.
Freshman of the Year: Ross Apo. He started the season off by scoring our first three offensive touchdowns...in three games. He was slowed a little bit by a concussion against Utah State and seemed to struggle initially with the QB change. He came on late, though, with 5 TDs in the last three games. Maybe breaking his thumb, last season, was the best thing that could have happened for him (as weird as that sounds). Jake really would have benefited from having to sit out a season.
Biggest disappointment: Jake Heaps. Heaps was bad this year. Really bad. His QB rating was awful, his accuracy was awful, his TDs to INTs was bad. More than anything, though, he just looked scared after the Ole Miss game. That first play against Utah, he just looked like he didn't want to get hit, so he gave up a touchdown rather than taking any punishment. That really was the beginning of the end, for me. For a lot of people (many teammates included), the beginning of the end was when he hired a PR man to film "The Decision" ala LeBron James. I honestly don't think he's going to do much wherever he goes.
A distant second for me was McKay Jacobson. I really thought this guy was going to be a stud after a solid Freshman season. I don't know if he lost a step or what on his mission, but other than his TD against Oklahoma, he's been a non-factor his last three seasons. This season, he had only the sixth most catches on the team and again only had one score. He probably led the team in drops, as well.
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