Eight Utah State Aggies Make All-Mountain West Conference Teams
The good news keeps coming for this 2018 version of Utah State football. They’ve gone 10-2 on the season up to this point and are in position to win their 11th game of the season and tie a school record with a bowl win. Matt Wells was just named Mountain West coach of the year today, for the second time in his career. On top of all of that, the Aggies received eight all-conference honors today from the Mountain West, second only behind Fresno State with ten.
Two Aggies made the first team; senior center Quin Ficklin, and sophomore return specialist Savon Scarver. Ficklin received honorable mention honors from the Mountain West last season, but this is the first appearance on the first team for either of these two Aggies. Scarver ranked highest in the Mountain West this season in return yard average at 34.2 per return. He was also one of only two returners to return a kick for a touchdown and the only with multiple trips to the endzone (2).
Ficklin led this Utah State offensive line which helped the Aggies run a top ten nationally ranked offense throughout the season. Ficklin and his offensive line mates protected sophomore quarterback Jordan Love exceptionally this year allowing only 0.8 sacks per game, sixth in the nation.
Speaking of Jordan Love, Love makes his first appearance on an all Mountain West team having been selected as the quarterback for the second team. Love broke the single season record for touchdown passes this season with 28 and finished second in the conference in TD/Int ratio at 5.6. Along with Love, two more Aggies on the offensive side of the ball received second team honors; junior running back Darwin Thompson and senior offensive linesman Roman Andrus.
Andrus also received honorable mention honors last season, and along with Ficklin, was good enough on the line for the Aggies this season to receive an all Mountain West selection. Thompson led the Aggies in rushing this season with 951 yards and led the conference in rushing average at 7.2 yards per carry. With 16 touchdowns on the season, Thompson tied for most total touchdowns with Boise State running back Alexander Mattison.
Utah State also had three selections to the second team on the defensive side of the ball; linebackers David Woodward and Tipa Galeai as well as senior safety Jontrell Rocquemore. Rocquemore finished second in the conference with three interceptions on the season and led the Aggies secondary with 8.5 tackles for loss. Woodward led the Aggies with 124 tackles and 12.5 tackles for loss in his first year as a starter. The sophomore linebacker is one of five Aggies linebackers to be named to be named to an all-conference team since they joined the Mountain West. One of the other five being junior Tipa Galeai. In his first season with the Aggies, Galeai finished first on the team with 8.5 sacks and second in tackles for loss with 11.
Ten Aggies also received honorable mention all conference honors: Adewale Adeoye, Sr., DL; Rob Castaneda, Sr., OL; Dominik Eberle, Jr., PK; Gaje Ferguson, Sr., DB; Fua Leilua, Jr., DL; Dax Raymond, Jr., TE; Christopher Unga, Jr., DL; DJ Williams, Jr., DB. Ron’Quavion Tarver, Sr., WR; Sean Taylor, Sr., OL.
Utah State will look for their good fortunes to continue with a bowl win to end the season, which should be announced sometime Sunday afternoon.
Check out both all conference teams down below.
2018 ALL-MOUNTAIN WEST FOOTBALL FIRST-TEAM
| OFFENSE
QB – Brett Rypien, Sr., Boise State WR – John Ursua, Jr., Hawai‘i WR – Preston Williams, Jr., Colorado State RB – Nico Evans, Sr., Wyoming RB – Alexander Mattison, Jr., Boise State TE – Josh Oliver, Sr., San José State OL – Ezra Cleveland, So., Boise State OL – Keith Ismael, So., San Diego State OL – Quin Ficklin, Sr., Utah State OL – Christian Cronk, Sr., Fresno State OL – John Molchon, Jr., Boise State PK – Cooper Rothe, Jr., Wyoming PR/KR – Savon Scarver, So., Utah State |
DEFENSE
DL – Curtis Weaver, So., Boise State DL – Mykal Walker, Jr., Fresno State DL – Jabril Frazier, Sr., Boise State DL – Korey Rush, Sr., Nevada LB – Kyahva Tezino, Jr., San Diego State LB – Jeff Allison, Jr., Fresno State LB – Malik Reed, Sr., Nevada DB – Tyler Horton, Sr., Boise State DB – Tank Kelly, Sr., Fresno State DB – Dakari Monroe, Sr., San José State DB – Andrew Wingard, Sr., Wyoming P – Ryan Stonehouse, So., Colorado State |
2018 ALL-MOUNTAIN WEST FOOTBALL SECOND-TEAM
| OFFENSE
QB – Jordan Love, So., Utah State WR – KeeSean Johnson, Sr., Fresno State WR – Sean Modster, Sr., Boise State RB – Lexington Thomas, Sr., UNLV RB – Darwin Thompson, Jr., Utah State TE – Jared Rice, Jr., Fresno State OL – Micah St. Andrew, Sr., Fresno State OL – Aaron Jenkins, Sr., New Mexico OL – Ryan Pope, Sr., San Diego State OL – Roman Andrus, Sr., Utah State OL – Griffin Landrum, Sr., Air Force PK – John Baron II, Sr., San Diego State PR/KR – Marcus Hayes, Fr., New Mexico |
DEFENSE
DL – Carl Granderson, Sr., Wyoming DL – Jordan Jackson, So., Air Force DL – Kaimana Padello, Jr., Hawai‘i DL – Bryson Bridges, Sr., San José State LB – David Woodward, So., Utah State LB – Josh Watson, Sr., Colorado State LB – Tipa Galeai, Jr., Utah State DB – Juju Hughes, Jr., Fresno State DB – Mike Bell, Jr., Fresno State DB – Tariq Thompson, So., San Diego State DB – Jontrell Rocquemore, Sr., Utah State P – Blake Cusick, Jr., Fresno State |