All-Sun Belt team
By Drew Champlin
Published: November 30, 2007
I’ve got a vote on this, but will wait until Sunday to send in my selections.
Regardless, here are the Troy players who are on the ballot.
QB-Omar Haugabook
RB-Kenny Cattouse
WR-Gary Banks, Josh Allen
OL-Chris Jamison, Danny Franks, Dion Small
DL-Shawn Todd, Chris Bradwell, Kenny Mainor
LB-Boris Lee, Marcus Richardson
DB-Sherrod Martin, Terence Moore, Leodis McKelvin, Tavares Williams, Elbert Mack
K-Greg Whibbs
P-Greg Whibbs
Return Specialist-Leodis McKelvin
All-Purpose-Leodis McKelvin
Player of the Year - Omar Haugabook
Offensive Player of the Year - Omar Haugabook
Defensive Player of the Year - Elbert Mack
Newcomer of the Year - Chris Bradwell
Freshman of the Year - Jerrel Jernigan
Coach of the Year - Larry Blakeney
Coaches can’t vote for their own athletes. Media can.
I haven’t looked at the stats or support information, but will do so after Saturday’s games. I think the winning QB of the Troy-FAU game will get more votes for Player of the Year. Rusty Smith of FAU has more passing numbers, while Haugabook’s ahead of him by more than 500 rushing yards.
Defensive Player of the Year, I think, comes down to Mack and Frantz Joseph of FAU. Again, would have to look at the stats of the other guys.
So there’s a lot on the line here. If Troy loses, Haugabook’s likely just the second-team all-Sun Belt selection.
It might be hard for Jernigan to pull out the Freshman of the Year award, unless he has a monster game Saturday. He’s good enough, but Dwight Dasher of MTSU and Giovanni Vizza of UNT have “numbers,“ even though their teams aren’t as good.
Bradwell’s the only guy on the Newcomer of the Year list, as it’s not for freshmen. Surprised me that no other JUCO transfers were on the list.
Needless to say, should Troy win, look for a lot of the guys mentioned above, maybe all of them, to land on either first team, second team or honorable mention.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on who the best players in the Sun Belt are. Maybe that will influence my voting.
