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ESPN today published it's "mid-season" awards with several Husky defensive players figuring prominently into their honors.
Danny Shelton and Shaq Thompson (@ST7_ERA) both named to ESPN Midseason All-America team ... congrats!! http://t.co/pcnNcLv2Pa
— UW Football (@UW_Football) October 14, 2014
ESPN's @MelKiperESPN names Hau'oli Kikaha his Midseason National Defensive Player of the Year (Insider): http://t.co/aYd7WWOkLW
— UW Football (@UW_Football) October 14, 2014
The collection of these honors and recognition are pulled together by ESPN staff and bloggers. As such, they really don't have that much linkage to how post-season honors might actually play out.
However, sports writers are notorious pack travelers who tend to feed off of one anothers assumptions and insights as they craft their own messaging and, in some cases, awards votes (you don't need to look much further than the wildly incestuous AP Top 25 polling to get an insight into that). The fact that Kikaha, Shelton, Shaq and even Marcus Peters (who gets a little pub from Mel Kiper in his write up on Kikaha) are getting mentions could become quite influential a few months from now, especially if their performance outputs stay high.
Now, if we could just do something about some offensive recognition.
#WOOF