ALL-WAC FOOTBALL TEAMS AND PLAYERS OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED

DENVER – The Western Athletic Conference announced its all-WAC teams and coach and players of the year awards as voted upon by the WAC’s nine head coaches. Boise State led the league with seven first-team all-WAC honorees, while Fresno State placed six on the first team and Hawai‘i, Louisiana Tech and Nevada each placed three. All nine schools were represented on the first team. Boise State’s Kellen Moore was named the Offensive Player of the Year, Nevada’s Dontay Moch earned Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Nevada’s Brandon Wimberly was named the Freshman of the Year. Boise State’s Chris Petersen was voted the WAC’s Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Moore, a sophomore quarterback from Prosser, Wash. (Prosser HS), leads the nation in passing efficiency with a 167.35 rating. He has completed 254-of-392 passes for 3,325 yards and 39 touchdowns with just three interceptions in leading the Broncos to a perfect 13-0 record and a berth in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4. As a starter, Moore is now 25-1 in just two seasons. He was named the WAC’s Freshman of the Year last season. This is Boise State’s third WAC Offensive Player of the Year award as running back Brock Forsey won it in 2002 and quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie won it a year later.

Moch, a junior defensive end from Chandler, Ariz. (Hamilton HS), leads the WAC and is eighth in the nation in tackles for loss with 19.5 for a loss of 92 yards on the season. He has a total of 57 tackles (35 solo), including 6.5 sacks for a loss of 49 yards. He has also broken up three passes and forced two fumbles on the year. Moch has helped lead the Nevada defense to first in the WAC in rushing defense and third in total defense. This is Nevada’s first ever WAC Defensive Player of the Year award.

Wimberly, a redshirt-freshman wide receiver from Los Angeles, Calif. (Gardena HS), leads Nevada and is 10th in the WAC in both receptions per game (3.8) and receiving yards per game (54.4). He has caught 46 passes for 653 yards and five touchdowns. This is Nevada’s third WAC Freshman of the Year award as running back Chance Kretschmer won it in 2001 and quarterback Colin Kaepernick won it in 2007.

Petersen earned his second WAC Coach of the Year award after directing Boise State to a perfect 13-0 record and the Broncos’ seventh WAC title in eight years. Petersen has racked up a record of 48-4 (31-1 WAC) in four seasons with Boise State. It is the fourth Coach of the Year award for a Boise State head coach as Dan Hawkins won it in both 2002 and 2004.

Hawai‘i’s John Estes made the first team for the third consecutive year. Other repeat first team all-WAC selections from last season include Nevada running back Vai Taua, Boise State defensive lineman Ryan Winterswyk, Louisiana Tech defensive lineman D’Anthony Smith, Boise State defensive back Kyle Wilson and San Jose State defensive back Duke Ihenacho.

Nevada placed a WAC-high seven players on the second team while Boise State, Fresno State and Idaho had four apiece.

The complete all-WAC selections are attached as a PDF.

The Pack Shows its Bite at the Silver and Blue Scrimmage

Nevada Spring Football
By Randy Connors

Nevada fans watching the annual spring Silver and Blue scrimmage at Mackay Stadium had to be impressed by the Wolf Pack football team because even head coach Chris Ault, who is very demanding, was happy about his team’s performance.

“Today’s scrimmage put a great exclamation point on this spring. I thought it was a great scrimmage. There were bright signs on both sides of the ball. There was great hitting and some weaknesses we have got to work on. But I was very pleased. We went 84 plays. I thought defensively we played really well, we got around the ball. I thought the offense, once they got warmed up, started moving the ball better,” coach Ault said.

During the scrimmage the defense, ranked number three in the country against the run last year, held the country’s number two rushing offense to 91 yards and no touchdowns. The passing defense looked much improved as they knocked down three passes and nearly nabbed two for touchdowns. Ault said that the defense had performed well throughout the spring practice sessions.

The Wolf Pack offense that averaged almost 300 yards per game last season looked effective even without the WAC’s Offensive Player of the Year quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and last season’s backup, Nick Graziano, who transferred out of the Nevada program. Sophomores Luke Collis and Tyler Lantrip took turns running plays. The duo combined for 350 yards and four touchdowns passing. Kaepernick, dressed in sweats and nursing a sore ankle from the Humanitarian Bowl, relayed plays to Collis and Lantrip.

“I am really pleased with both quarterbacks. They are excellent quarterbacks. They made great strides every week and got tougher as the spring went on. I am excited about them,” Ault said.

Wolf Pack watchers have a lot to be excited about as the pistol offense continues to evolve. Offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Chris Klenakis says that the Pack worked on expanding the offense this spring.

“We made improvements. We want to be a better throwing team and I think we took strides forward this spring in doing that. We put a lot of emphasis on our play action game and we took some steps up in that direction. There are some things we liked and some things we maybe didn’t like. That’s the thing about spring, it all looks good when you draw it up on the board in winter - but until you run it full speed you don’t know,” Klenakis said.

Senior All-WAC offensive lineman Alanzo Durham is confident that the Pack will continue to be one of the nation’s top rushing and passing teams. “We are just going to keep doing the same thing we do every year and that is work harder and get better. With coach ‘K’ behind us, there is nothing we can’t achieve. All the guys are pumped. They are ready to follow-up on what we did last year,” Durham says.

The players know that hard work is necessary as the Wolf Pack looks forward to one of the most difficult schedules ever. Senior Running back Brandon Fragger scored a touchdown during the Saturday scrimmage. “We have one of the hardest spring programs and everyday we get better and better. That helps us prepare for the big games,” Fragger said.

Senior defensive tackle Chris Slack thought the spring training session went good for him and the team. “Everyone has a good attitude. We try to have some fun out here, get better and get ready for Notre Dame,” Slack said.

Safety Jonathan Amaya, one of the Pack’s fiercest tacklers and senior leaders has seen a lot of spring training sessions, yet his intensity and the focus of the spring sessions has not changed. “I think we prepared well. We worked overtime - we definitely put in a lot of overtime,” Amaya said.

After the final scrimmage the mood on the field was genuinely upbeat. The Wolf Pack football players finished a successful spring practice and were off for spring break. Coach Ault was smiling and had good words for his players. But as always, the coach held back from being completely satisfied.

“We have a ways to go. We want to compete at the championship level. That is what it is all about,” Ault said.

[Editors Note: Nevada’s 2009 non-conference games include Sept. 5 at Notre Dame, Sept. 19 at Colorado State, Sept. 26 vs. Missouri, and Oct. 10 vs. UNLV]

NEVADA FOOTBALL ANNOUNCES 17-PLAYER RECRUITING CLASS

RENO, NEV. — Head coach Chris Ault and the Nevada football team announced the signing of a 17 football recruits to National Letters of Intent.

The class features nine offensive players, seven players on defense and a kicker and it includes four players who have already enrolled at Nevada.

“This is a solid class and with it we met some immediate needs,” Ault said. “This class includes some incoming freshman who we believe will work into the depth chart this fall. We had a limited number of scholarships available so it was a very interesting and thorough process. We were able to disseminate information more effectively.”

There are five junior college transfers who should provide an immediate impact plus a sophomore transfer with three years of eligbility remaining. Two of the 11 freshman have already enrolled this semester as grayshirts while the other nine fresh-man will join the team in the fall.

“Our team is so young and much of that youth is already in the depth chart,” recruiting coordinator Jim Mastro said. “I think that shows the high level of the last few recruiting classes and I believe this class is in that category. We were able to be very selective this year with the caliber of the student-athletes we are bringing to the University of Nevada.”

Nevada went 7-6 in 2008 and made its fourth-straight bowl appearance. The Wolf Pack returns 15 starters from that team. Nevada will begin spring football on Feb. 20 with the annual spring scrimmage scheduled for March 14.

Heading to Notre Dame?

BOISE ISN’T PASADENA BUT HUMANITARIAN BOWL STILL MAKES DISTINCTIVE MARK

It is understandable that there would have been some skepticism about a college football bowl game in Boise, Idaho. After all, bowl games started in the era of leather helmets as an end-of-the-season reward for highly successful teams who, through their excellence on the field of major college sports, had earned their trip to a warm-weather destination to match up with other great teams.

Dallas, New Orleans, Miami, Pasadena. There’s something to be said for pool time and suntans in January.

But Boise? Idaho? At the end of December?

What those skeptics may not have understood is that Boise has always had an entrepreneurial streak that shaped one of the most important business centers in the West. There were dreamers at work in Boise in the late 1990s – can-do hard-drivers who weren’t afraid to take a risk on laying down blue turf or thinking outside the ice box to find novel ways to entertain visitors who had never laid their eyes on snow.

Boise had a role model to emulate right here in the interior West. In Phoenix, where corporate leaders and other fans got frustrated with USC, UCLA and Washington having all the fun, a bowl game for the home team Arizona State Sun Devils was nurtured and refined into the Fiesta Bowl we know today – a Bowl Championship Series event that each year helps to decide the national champion.

Those dreamers in Idaho took stock of the Fiesta Bowl, cooked up concepts like a huge steak fry, bowling for charity and play days on intertubes and snowmobiles, and launched the Humanitarian Bowl.

Dynamic matchups have come from the Humanitarian Bowl’s unique competition of Atlantic Coast Conference, Conference USA and Western Athletic Conference teams.

The Humanitarian Bowl has earned a lasting relationship with ESPN in part because producers know something explosive is likely to happen. Just as Boise State established an identity as a program competitive at the national level with imaginative, explosive football teams, the Humanitarian Bowl has captured lightning in a bottle. Boston College, Miami, Georgia Tech, Boise State, Clemson and Fresno State have each won Humanitarian Bowl trophies.

Come Dec. 30, for the third time in the last four years, the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl will be featured on ESPN’s flagship station.

A Dec. 30 game isn’t so preposterous in Boise, and we invite you to visit the bowl game’s website (www.humanitarianbowl.org) to reserve tickets so you can see for yourself. Snow doesn’t often stick in the scenic and relatively low-elevation Boise River valley. But just a few minutes from town, in the western Rockies, dozens of athletes from the ACC have had the opportunity to experience snow for the first time in their lives. They snowmobile. They go tubing. They make snow angels. They get to be kids again – if only for an afternoon.

“The whole town is awesome. My expectations weren’t that high. But this is the best bowl trip ever,” one veteran ACC bowl game attendee said after his first trip to the Humanitarian Bowl.

“The University of Miami football team had an excellent experience at the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl when we played Nevada in 2006,” Miami Coach Randy Shannon said. “The hospitality we received from the Bowl Committee and the City of Boise was second to none. Both the student-athletes and the staff had a tremendous time.”

The Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl is one of those experiences in a young person’s life that will leave a lasting imprint. The bowl game is affiliated with the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, whose members include Mel Blount, Pele, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Steve Young, Jesse Owens and Tom Landry.

Heisman Trophy winners have established a new tradition at the Humanitarian Bowl by addressing the two teams on humanity and leadership at a pre-game dinner event.

Now, in their 12th year, the dreamers who launched the Humanitarian Bowl have solidified their bond with ESPN, have become the post-season destination of some of the strongest programs in football, and are reaching out to leading conferences in the West as bowl relationships across college football are reset for 2010. We can’t wait to see what will happen next.

So if it’s something outside the ice box you want this bowl season, get to Boise for some affordable and memorable fun.

(Dirk Koetter is the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars and served as head football coach at Arizona State and Boise State, where his teams played in two Humanitarian Bowls. Karl Benson is commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference.)

NEVADA FOOTBALL HANDS OUT 2008 AWARDS

RENO, NEV. — Sophomore quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the recipient of the Golden Helmet Award at the 2008 Nevada

Football Awards Banquet held Wednesday evening at the Eldorado Hotel.

Sophomore running back Vai Taua and senior center Dominic Green shared Outstanding Offensive Player honors while sophomore

defensive end Kevin Basped was the Outstanding Defensive Player. Senior kicker Brett Jaekle was the team’s

Outstanding Special Teams Player. Senior defensive tackle Mundrae Clifton was the Wolf Pack’s Nevadatude winner as the

best representative of the program’s beliefs and ideals.

The awards were based on voting from the players and coaches.

Nevada is preparing for its fourth consecutive bowl appearance as it will take on Maryland in the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl

in Boise, Idaho on Dec. 30.

Golden Helmet Award (MVP)

Colin Kaepernick, sophomore quarterback

Outstanding Offensive Player

Vai Taua, sophomore running back, and Dominic Green,

senior center

Outstanding Defensive Player

Kevin Basped, sophomore defensive end

Outstanding Special Teams Player

Brett Jaekle, senior kicker

Nevadatude Award (best representative of the beliefs and

ideals of the program)

Mundrae Clifton, senior defensive tackle

Basalite Big Blocker (given the offensive lineman who

grades out the best in victories)

Grambling State: Greg Hall, senior guard.

UNLV: Alonzo Durham, junior tackle.

Idaho: Mike Gallett, sophomore tackle.

Utah State: John Bender, sophomore guard.

Fresno State: Dominic Green, senior center.

San Jose State: John Bender, sophomore guard.

Louisiana Tech: Clayton Johnson, senior guard/tackle.

Blackout Award (big hitter)

Jerome Johnson, senior linebacker

Full-speed, Effort and Habit Awards (scout team players of

the year)

Offense: Brandon Wimberly, freshman receiver

Defense: Kaelin Burnett, freshman linebacker

Striker Awards (dominating play over a period of time)

Vai Taua, sophomore running back

Dominic Green, senior center

Fireman’s Award

Jerome Johnson, senior linebacker

WAC Players of the Week

Colin Kaepernick, sophomore quarterback, vs. UNLV

Vai Taua, sophomore running back, vs. Fresno State

Colin Kaepernick, sophomore quarterback, vs. San Jose St.

Colin Kaepernick, sophomore quarterback, vs. La. Tech

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