Tightwad Hill

CONGRATULATIONS, GOLDEN BEARS

Yesterday Marshawn Lynch was named the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year, and Daymeion Hughes was named Pat Tillman Defensive POY.

Never before have Cal players earned the Pac-10's Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year honors in the same season. In fact, only three times since 1983 - the year when the conference began to award offense and defense awards - has a single team won both of the awards.

- In 1990, Husky RB Greg Lewis won the Offensive award, and DT Steve Emtman shared honors with Arizona CB Darryl Lewis.

- In 1991, Emtman repeated as Defensive POY, and Husky WR Mario Bailey shared Offense honors with Cal QB Mike Pawlawski.

- In 2004, USC's Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart shared Offensive honors, and DT Shaun Cody was co-POY with Oregon State DE Bill Swancutt. (SC's Michael Patterson should have won the award in both '03 and '04, BTW)

You'll notice one thing about these teams, of course. They all won the conference championship, and two of the three were national champions.

In addition to Hughes and Lynch, four other Golden Bears were named first-team all-conference. DeSean Jackson won honors at two positions - wide receiver and punt returner, while Desmond Bishop and Brandon Mebane won honors on the first-team defense. Lastly, sophomore center Alex Mack was named to the first-team offense along with USC's Ryan Kalil (the Pac-10 honors the best slate of offensive linemen, regardless of position). DE Nu'u Tafisi, ST Byron Storer, OT Mike Gibson, P Andrew Larson and TE Craig Stevens earned second-team honors.

posted by Tightwad @ 9:15 AM