Coach of the Year: Tim Albin, Ohio
Vern Smith Leadership Award Winner: Kurtis Rourke, QB, Ohio
Offensive Player of the Year: Kurtis Rourke, QB, Ohio
Defensive Player of the Year: Jose Ramirez, DL, Eastern Michigan
Special Teams Player of the Year: Alex McNulty, PK, Buffalo
Freshman of the Year: Sieh Bangura, RB, Ohio
I would think that the top defense in the conference (in terms of points and rushing yards allowed) would have had more players named to the all conference teams, but I think in the case of Miami’s defense the “defense as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.
Their offense was (statistically) good, ours was not…like I said “a bit” of popularity contest.
PS - “Bigger concern is no young offense players anywhere…”
Still a bit surprising that Kent has that many on 1st team…for me the issue is no young offensive players anywhere and three (3) of 7 graduate…but on the flipside, OU only had two more players named overall and they were clearly better than us this time around.
I think a case could be made for Dom as first team. My concern is not that we were slighted but that our selections were realistically ranked. Someone pointed out the lack of any young offensive skill players on any of the three teams. That’s a bit of a red flag for next year, considering Hip and Jalen are both gone.
