Preseason football honors start rolling in

Preseason rankings and honors don’t count for squat.

But that are an indication of respect, recognition and a good publicist and all of those appear to be at work today as two Cougar offensive linemen, Ray Feinga and Dallas Reynolds have been named to the watch list for the Outland Trophy.

The Outland Trophy is awarded to the best lineman in the country. This first watch list names 70 players. It is knocked down to finalists later in the season.

Also, six BYU football players were named to the preseason All-America list by Nationalchamps.net. The six players include both Feinga and Reynolds, plus QB Max Hall, defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen, tight end Dennis Pitta and running back Harvey Unga.

This means some media folks can refer to them as preseason All-Americans. Some of the more credible lists include that of Street and Smith’s Football Year Book, The Sporting News and others.

Only two other teams, Florida and Missouri, had more players selected to the All-America list. The website’s owner is Todd Helmick, who is also a Heisman Trophy voter and he listed Hall as a top 20 Heisman candidate.