Utah CFB Offensive Awards: Week Six

College Football isn't know for being a balanced, stabilized sport.

This was incredibly apparent after this weekends results finalized.

7 teams in the top 25 bit the dust, 5 of them were in the top 11 of the AP poll.

A lot of seemingly untouchable teams were dumped by mostly unranked supposed “nobodies” of the sport.

Alabama dropping to Vanderbilt, USC succumbing to Minnesota, take your pick the losses were big, surprising and multiple, making this one of the best sports around for unprecedented drama.

Here in Utah the drama wasn't as prevalent as the two power four schools (Utah, BYU) were on Bye weeks, watching everything unfurl from the comfort of their homes.

Both squads benefited from the shenanigans of a wild week with undefeated BYU rising 3 spots to #14 in the polls and Utah landing at #16, two spots up from last weeks placeholder.

As great as that was, no game means no offensive performance and no offensive performance means no offensive awards in our weekly awards show.

This means we have only four games as opposed to the usual six to choose from when we pick our premier playmakers of the week from Utah.

Those games are:

Utah State losing in Boise, 62-30, in a Mountain West battle.

Weber State pulling off the big overtime road upset of FCS #9 Montana on the road to the tune of 55-48.

Another overtime thriller, this time going against the Utah team, was Southern Utah missing a PAT at the end to give FCS #14 Tarleton State a 38-37 win in Cedar City.

Utah Tech traveled to Florence to take on the North Alabama Lions in what was a 60-14 loss for the Trailblazers.

With these games in mind lets hand out our offensive awards, but first a quick reminder on what we award:

BEST QB

BEST RB

BEST PASS CATCHER

BEST O-LINE

Reminder: We are naming the top offensive efforts from the following groups at the D1 level in Utah and Utah only.

Here we go.

QUARTERBACK; RICHIE MUNOZ, WEBER STATE

Utah State’s Spencer Petras was given the green light as the Aggies trailed the entirety of the game and put up some respectable numbers in the loss.

Petras went 27/41 (66 %) for 372 yards and three touchdowns without throwing a pick for what was comfortably his best game in Aggie blue.

But there’s an obvious choice for this award and it’s found in the form of Weber State’s Richie Munoz.

Munoz led the charge for the upset bid in Missoula by launching six passing touchdowns.

Yes, I said six.

His six touchdowns were done on only 28 attempts with 364 yards total through the air.

Munoz completed 19 passes, averaging 19 yards per completion.

10 different Wildcats hauled in a pass from Munoz as the ball was whipping around at an impressive pace.

The eventual game winning score was a Munoz 7 yard thread to Damon Bankston on the far side of the endzone to stun the Montana crowd and put the Wildcats up.

Six touchdowns in a single game is the most thrown by a Wildcat quarterback since 1993 per Weber State football and Munoz earned the “Stats Perform FCS National Offensive Player of the Week.”

A performance that’s dominant and historic is worthy of the award any time.

RUNNING BACK: TARGHEE LAMBSON, SOUTHERN UTAH

We discussed Damon Bankston, a key cog in the Weber State win both on the ground and through the air as he ran for 73 yards before turning on his receiving abilities in the overtime period finishing with 3 receptions, 31 yards and the touchdown.

Weber State also saw Davion Godley go for 97 yards on 7 tries for 13.9 yards per carry.

Rahsul Faison continued to churn and burn on the smurf turf with 116 total yards and a touchdown for a 4.2 yards per tote.

Yet, much like the quarterback situation, this award has a clear winner this week.

Frequent flyer, Targhee Lambson, gave Southern Utah every opportunity to walk away with the upset over Tarleton State by delighting T-Bird fans to a 217 yard ball game.

Lambson didn’t take a single loss on a whopping 38 attempts ripping off 5.7 yards a showing.

The numbers weren’t fluff either, as Lambson’s long was only a twenty yard burst. Meaning he was doing the dirty work time and time again in a grueling effort.

In six games this season, Lambson has ran for 149 yards or more in every contest but one (@ Utah).

His 217 yards was his high in single game yardage for the year and his 4^th game out of six with two total touchdowns.

His workload increased and so did his production, which is not always a guarantee, and the effort against the Texans was a prime example of not only how good Lambson is, but how much better he could be getting.

PASS CATCHER: JALEN ROYALS, UTAH STATE

The 4 Utah D1 games bore witness to some impressive receiving performance throughout.

In the onslaught that was Richie Munoz tossing 6 touchdowns, one could imagine Weber State had some stout performances from their receiving corps.

Jacob Sharp led Weber State in receptions (5) and yards (152) while accounting for two touchdowns.

Jayleen Record snagged three balls for 105 yards and two touchdowns himself out in Montana.

Bryce Parker came two yards short of 100 with a 3 catch, 98 yard showing for Utah Tech with a touchdown.

Gabe Nunez eclipsed the 100 yard mark for SUU on 5 receptions.

With some of those honorable mentions in mind, we go to the guy who had the most yards, the most receptions and tied for the most touchdowns in the state this previous weekend.

That would be Utah State’s Jalen Royals.

Royals topped 200 yards (211) in a stout effort torching Boise State’s secondary as the Aggies tried to keep pace at Albertson’s Stadium.

He did it on 9 receptions averaging 23.4 yards a haul.

His longest catch and run was 75 yards for a score tying for tops in the state with Bryce Parker of Utah Tech.

The other touchdown came on a 59 yard grab on a USU 4^th down.

Royals was electric and well deserving of taking home this weeks pass catcher award.

OFFENSIVE LINE: SOUTHERN UTAH THUNDERBIRDS

EDWARD RILEY, KYLE SFARCIOC, STEVEN EAKINS, LYLE SANTOS, COLLIN GARDNER

Lets break the best offensive line performance down real simple like.

SUU had the. A: Most rushing yards out of all Utah schools with 237.

B: Had the most rush attempts at 50, next highest was 38. This means your O-line has to not only be in shape, but trying to win in the trenches every snap. That’s as impressive as it is exhausting.

C: SUU only lost 17 yards on 50 attempts, you would think once a good Tarleton State team zoned in on the run game that more negative plays would abound, but they didn’t.

D: SUU’s line did give up two sacks, but every team in the state except Utah State gave up at least two. USU allowed one.

Pure dominance in the run game especially when people are anticipating the run is always going to win out for me.

That does it for the offense, tune in tomorrow to see some defensive guys get love.