Sonny Lubick, who directed Colorado State to its first Western Athletic Conference football championship and to a school-record 10 victories, has been named the WAC's coach of the year.
Other individual award winners, as selected by the WAC's head coaches, included New Mexico quarterback Stoney Case, who was voted the league's offensive player of the year; and Utah tackle Luther Elliss, who was named defensive player of the year.San Diego State wide receiver Will Blackwell was named freshman of the year, and Fresno State's David Dunn was named special teams player of the year.
Lubick, 57, received seven of nine first-place votes and 14 points in the balloting. Air Force's Fisher DeBerry was runner-up with the other two first-place votes and seven points. Utah's Ron McBride received four points, BYU's LaVell Edwards two and Texas-El Paso's Charlie Bailey one.
Lubick completed his second season at CSU by leading the Rams to their best record ever (10-1), including a 7-1 conference mark and trip to the Holiday Bowl. The Rams' season included an upset of then-No. 6 Arizona in Tucson.
Case received all nine potential first-place votes to easily outdistance Colorado State quarterback Anthoney Hill. Case had 18 points to Hill's seven. Utah quarterback Mike McCoy received three points and Wyoming running back Ryan Christopherson two.
Case ranked third nationally in total offense with an average of 304.1 yards per game. He completed 233 of 409 passes for 3,117 yards and 22 touchdowns, and he also ran for 532 yards and 11 scores.
Elliss, a three-time first-team all-conference selection, also received every possible first-place vote and had 18 points. Air Force linebacker Johnny Harrison and Colorado State cornerback Andre Strode were next with six points each.
Elliss had 78 tackles and was the leader of a defense which led the WAC in nearly every team category. He had a team-high nine tackles for losses, four sacks.
"Luther was the leader of our defense, and he might be the best defensive lineman ever to play at Utah," McBride said. "He was double-teamed by most opponents, but he still could not be stopped."
Blackwell, who caught 41 passes for 502 yards and five TDs, earned the freshman honor, prevailing over Fresno State placekicker Johann Lyssand, New Mexico offensive tackle Matt Tyner and Wyoming offensive lineman Jay Korth.
Dunn, who leads the nation with 31 kickoff returns for a 29.7-yard average, was a narrow winner over Hawaii's Matthew Harding for the special-teams award.
Seven Utah players, including Elliss, and five players from league-champion Colorado State highlight the 1994 All-Western Athletic Conference football team announced Tuesday.
In balloting by the league's head coaches, each of the WAC's 10 schools are represented on the first team.
The only repeat selections from 1993 are Elliss, Utah offensive lineman Lance Scott, Texas-El Paso placekicker Marshall Young and CSU free safety Greg Myers.
The offense is headed by New Mexico's Case, the only player in NCAA history to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for more than 9,000 yards in his career, and a pair of Wyoming players who led the conference in rushing and receiving, respectively - senior Ryan Christopherson and sophomore Marcus Harris.
Christopherson became the first Wyoming player to lead the WAC in rushing, posting the fifth-highest single-season total in league history with 1,455 yards. He is joined in the first-team backfield by another 1,000-yard rusher, Brigham Young's Jamal Willis.
BYU offensive lineman Evan Pilgrim was also a first-team honoree.
Harris, one of two sophomores to make the first team, caught 71 passes for 1,431 yards and 11 TDs. All three figures were league highs, and his per-game average of 119.3 yards leads the nation. Other receivers named to the squad were Fresno State's Charlie Jones and Utah's Curtis Marsh.
The senior-dominated offensive line includes two Utah players - Scott and Anthony Brown. Also named were CSU's Pat Meyer, BYU's Evan Pilgrim, New Mexico tight end David Sloan and the only junior in the group, Air Force's Bret Cillessen.
Utah placed four players on the first-team defense. Elliss was joined by linebacker Mark Rexford and backs Ernest Boyd and Kareem Leary.
Other defensive linemen were CSU's Sean Moran, BYU's Randy Brock and San Diego State's La'Roi Glover.
Joining Rexford at linebacker were Johnny Harrison of Air Force, Kenya Ragsdale of CSU and Junior Faavae of Hawaii. Others named to the secondary were CSU's Andre Strode and SDSU's Ricky Parker, the other sophomore.
Besides Young, special-team honors went to Wyoming punter Brian Gragert and Fresno State return specialist David Dunn.
For a complete listing of honorees, see Scoreboard on this page.