So, the Pac-10 announced its all-conference selections today, and there was an incredibly notable oversight. Let me compare two players for you.
| G | Rec. | Yards | Avg. | TD | Rec./G | Yards/G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player A | 12 | 55 | 1006 | 18.29 | 6 | 4.6 | 83.8 |
| Player B | 13 | 64 | 786 | 12.28 | 6 | 4.9 | 60.5 |
Player A is WSU's Marquess Wilson. Player B is USC's Robert Woods, whom the coaches chose as their Freshman Offensive Player Of The Year.
The Seattle Times' Bob Condotta and I had a brief Twitter discussion about the coaches' voting philosophy, and he said that coaches factor in who scares them more -- who they have to worry about game planning for. I get that. I also get that Woods returned kicks. But c'mon -- there is no possible way any rational person can argue that Woods had a better year. If you want to bring the returns into the conversation, OK. I'll see that and raise it being thrown to by a QB who was sacked more than 50 times in an offense that had absolutely no credible threat of a running game.
I'm probably making too big of a deal out of this. In fact, I know I am. But I feel bad for Wilson, who deserved this recognition. In what was a tough season for players and fans, this would have been something we could celebrate.
As expected, there were no other Cougs on the first or second team, but Reid Forrest, B.J. Guerra, Jared Karsetter, Travis Long, Tyree Toomer, Jeff Tuel, Zack Williams and Wilson were all named to as honorable mentions, meaning they appeared on at least one ballot.