Washington State wide receiver Vince Mayle gets to add another accolade to his collection as he was named to the all-Pac-12 second team Tuesday night.
The fact that Mayle was only second team seems questionable, until you consider the Pac-12 -- in its infinite wisdom -- only names two receivers to its first team. He finished behind USC's Nelson Agholor and Arizona State's Jaelen Strong, two awesome players. I could make an argument that Mayle's just as good, but he played on a worse team, and coaches vote on this thing, so that's really all that needs to be said about that, since they love "winners."
If the Pac-12 actually thought about this for a second and realized how silly it is to only have two wide receivers on an all-conference team in 2014*, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that Mayle would have joined those two on the first team.
*Especially considering the same conference that names 10 players to its all-conference basketball first team.
How good was Mayle? Take it away, WSU Athletic Communications:
Mayle earns his first career all-conference accolade after tying for the national lead with 106 receptions and posting for a Pac-12-best 1,483 yards, both WSU single-season records. The Natomas, Calif. native caught nine touchdowns, led the Pac-12 with six 100-yard games and was the only player in the country with two 250-yard games (263-Cal, 252-Arizona State), the only player in conference history to own two such games. Mayle, a redshirt-senior and Biletnikoff Award semifinalist, also led the Pac-12 with 123.6 yards-per-game and was third in the league in all-purpose yards-per-game (138.3).
It's quite the ascension for a guy who's only been playing football for a few years. He now heads off to prepare for the Senior Bowl, where he'll get a chance to show off for NFL scouts for a week. If you remember, Deone Bucannon parlayed his strong senior season and appearance at the Senior Bowl into a first round pick in the NFL Draft. Mayle's draft ceiling probably isn't that high, but he's got a chance to open some eyes.
Also named all-conference honorable mention: Senior quarterback Connor Halliday, junior left tackle Joe Dahl, junior linebacker Jeremiah Allison and sophomore cornerback Daquawn Brown. That means Brown received a first or second team vote, in case you're wondering, while River Cracraft and Xavier Cooper did not receive any votes. Okie dokie then!
Congrats to all these guys.