Phil Steele’s long-running college football preview magazine is making its way around the country following its recent release. Among many, many other things it contains Steele’s picks for four preseason All-Mountain West teams. It comes shortly after Athlon Sports released their own last week, which also included four full all-conference teams.
Steele doesn’t appear as optimistic about the Aggies, only featuring eight players who earned nine overall selections. One notable reason for this is his inclusion of players from the “Pac-2,” Washington State and Oregon State whereas they were not included in Athlon’s teams. As such, the Aggies rank T-5th among the 14 teams accounted for with these teams, behind Boise State (15), UNLV (14), Fresno State (12) and Colorado State (12), being tied with Wyoming and San Diego State (both at nine), and coming in ahead of Hawaii (eight), Air Force (six), Washington State (six), Oregon State (five), San Jose State (four), Nevada (four) and New Mexico (three).
Three USU players were named to the First Team, those being wide receiver Jalen Royals, safety Ike Larsen and long-snapper Jacob Garcia. All are pretty obvious choices, especially Royals and Larsen who were named All-MW First Team at the end of last year (the conference doesn’t award a long-snapper on the all-conference team).
Two Aggies made it to the Second Team, tight end Broc Lane and Micah Davis who made it on the second team as a punt returner. Davis was also one of two Aggies on the Third Team, being honored as a wide receiver. Running back Rahsul Faison also made Third Team.
The final two Utah State players honored were both offensive linemen, center Falepule Alo and guard Wyatt Bowles.
A notable trend in Steele’s Aggie picks for the all-conference team was a near complete lack of defensive selections. Only Larsen saw a selection. For reference, Athlon selected five total USU defenders, including a pair on the second team (Blaine Spires and Avante Dickerson).
Also included in Steele’s magazine is a ranking of all draft eligible players in Division I at various positions. Three Aggies made the cut for these relatively exclusive rankings. Davis was ranked as the No. 15 punt returner, Royals the No. 17 wide receiver and Larsen the No. 19 free safety.
