Cooper Rothe Is Lone Preseason All-MW Cowboy, UW Chosen 4th
Wyoming senior placekicker Cooper Rothe was selected the 2019 Mountain West Conference Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year Tuesday.
Rothe was the Cowboys’ lone selection to the MW Preseason All-Conference team announced at the league’s annual media days in Las Vegas. Wednesday, Rothe was also picked as a candidate on the Lou Groza Award Watch List.
At the end of the 2018 season, Rothe was chosen as the MW Special Teams Player of the Year. As a junior, he was a finalist for the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the nation’s top collegiate placekicker. Rothe led the nation in field goal percentage last season at 94.1 percent (16-17 on FGs). He tied for first in PAT percentage at 100 percent (28-28). Rothe’s field goal percentage is a single-season Mountain West Conference record. He enters 2019 with 44 career field goals, which is the fourth-most among all active players in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Utah State junior QB Jordan Love was selected the MW Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, while Boise State junior DL Curtis Weaver received the MW Preseason Defensive Player of the Year accolade.
The MW Preseason All-Conference team features 16 players that were All-MW honorees in 2018. The squad features 25-members and consists of 14 seniors, nine juniors, and two sophomores.
Boise State and Utah State have the most players on the Preseason All-MW team with five each, as chosen by select members of the media. San Diego State has four, while Fresno State has three. Air Force and Nevada feature two apiece, while Wyoming, UNLV, Hawai’i, and Colorado State have one each. Two conference schools, New Mexico and San Jose State, did not have a representative on the Preseason All-MW team.
Also on Tuesday, Boise State and Fresno State were picked to win the Mountain and West Divisions of the conference in the Preseason Poll for predicted order of finish by league media.
The Broncos were chosen to win the Mountain Division for a sixth straight year. They received 15 first-place votes and 120 points in the balloting. Fresno State earned the top spot in the West Division for a second-consecutive year. The Bulldogs got 122 points in the poll and 17 first-place votes.
The Wyoming Cowboys were picked to finish fourth in the Mountain, but just seven points back of Air Force. It went Boise State, Utah State, the Falcons, UW, and then Colorado State, and New Mexico.
In the West after the Bulldogs, it was San Diego State, Nevada, Hawai’i, UNLV, and San Jose State.