All-conference balloting offers some tough calls

The ballots are out for the Mountain West Conference honors and it'll be as sticky as the Iowa Caucus to see how some of this goes down.

Plenty of football players in the MWC stood out in 2007, and they've adequately made their cases. Throw in a little league politics that historically protect graduating seniors, and you get the idea.

There's no better case than the Halls. As in Air Force's outstanding utility back Chad Hall and BYU sophomore quarterback Max Hall. Who deserves MWC Offensive Player of the Year honors?

Chad Hall, pound for pound, is easily the biggest producer of plays in the league. Max Hall, just a rookie, piloted the league's No. 1 offense to an undisputed title and, with a Cougar win over SDSU today, could make the case that he helped BYU run the table in this league.

Then come Coach of the Year honors. Not going to "retiring" Sonny Lubick or Kyle Whittingham or Joe Glenn after Fingergate.

The sentimental and maybe obvious favorite would be AFA's first-year coach Troy Calhoun for taking the Falcons to a 9-2, 6-2 mark and second place after voters thought the cadets were grounded.

One could make a case for BYU's Bronco Mendenhall, last year's honoree. With a win Saturday in Navy Town, nobody in this league will have beat him in two seasons and he'd have engineered a 2007 title with a two-game margin of error, a 16-game league win streak.

How many Utes will find themselves on the All-MWC first or second team, honored for that seven-game win streak and remarkable turnaround with one cleat in the grave? Does Darrell Mack belong?

After voters kind of slapped BYU in the face on the defensive end of things a year ago by leaving out some huge playmakers, have the Cougars gained more respect this time around since no player gained more than 100 ground yards on this bunch? Chad Hall got 19 yards on BYU.

Who is the league's Defensive Player of the Year? TCU's Chase Ortiz, UNLV's Beau Bell or BYU's Jan Jorgensen or Bryan Kehl? Does Ute Steve Tate belong? After all, Utah has the league's best pass defense.

Freshman of the Year. No brainer: Cougar Harvey Unga, hands down. The big Tongan needs just over 167 yards today to set an MWC freshman rushing record. Special teams player of the year? It's got to be Utah junior kicker Louie Sakoda. Who is the league's best receiver? On paper, the Cougs and Utes have five in the Top 10.

You can see some of the challenges. Unga isn't one of them.

The two Halls make a formidable argument.