For the second time in three years, Utah claimed more than one of the Mountain West Conference's individual football awards.
Senior Eric Weddle repeated as the league's defensive player of the year and sophomore Louie Sakoda was tabbed as co-special teams player of the year Thursday.
"It's pretty crazy, surreal. I never thought I would accomplish that with all the great players in the league," Weddle said. "It's a huge honor for myself, for my teammates and for this university."
Winning the award twice, he explained, wasn't easy. Everyone gave him their best shot and tried to make him look bad.
"You've just got to keep competing and play within yourself," Weddle said. "I tried to do that all year and I just got lucky enough to win it again."
The first solo back-to-back winner of the league's top defensive award was pleased that Sakoda was also honored.
"He definitely earned it," Weddle said while praising his teammate's consistency. "He's been the best kicker in this league the entire season."
The soft-spoken Sakoda didn't have much to say about the accolade. Sakoda credited Utah's offseason training program for keeping him in condition to handle both punting and place-kicking duties. Another big plus, he added, is having teammate Ben Vroman do the kickoffs.
"It feels great," Sakoda said of winning the MWC award. "I've been doing what I've been doing all year, and it's good to get rewarded for it."
Utah has never won two individual MWC awards in the same season. The Utes did, however, take home three in 2004 when Alex Smith (offense), Morgan Scalley (defense) and Urban Meyer (coach) were honored.
Solo winners include: John Frank (defense, 1999), Jason Kaufusi (freshman, 2000), Meyer (coach, 2003) and Weddle (defense, 2005).
ANDERSEN INTERVIEWS: Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen was in Pocatello on Thursday to discuss the vacant head coaching job at Idaho State. The Bengals hope to have a coach in place by Dec. 15. Bowling Green quarterbacks coach Mick McCall met with ISU officials Wednesday and Maine associate head coach Robert Wilder is set to visit today.
Andersen is expected to be back with the Utes when practice resumes today and Saturday.
BAD, GOOD: The folks at CollegeFootballNews.com don't think much about the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl matchup pitting Utah against Tulsa. They ranked it 29th out of the 32 bowl games.
"Neither team has done anything to make the non-college football fan want to watch this," the Web site said before predicting Utah to defeat Tulsa, 31-20.
Two more All-America teams also include Utes' Weddle
Utah senior defensive back Eric Weddle won two more All-America citations Thursday when SI.com and the Walter Camp Football Foundation released their teams. SI.com tabbed Weddle as a first-team All-American, and the caption under his picture on the Web site reads, "Two-way stud snagged six picks, scored five offensive TDs." The WCFF, which is selected by the head coaches and sports information directors of the 119 Division 1-A football schools and is the nation's oldest All-America team, honored Weddle as a second-team All-American.
Utah senior Tavo Tupola also earned All-America recognition by making the SI.com second team.
Weddle has now made four All-America teams, including three first-team citations (American Football Coaches Association, SI.com and rivals.com), and one second-team honor (WCFF). He was also selected as the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year. He and Tupola were both named to the all-conference first team.
E-mail: dirk@desnews.com