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Fresno State’s Blake Cusick Named To Mortell Award Watchlist
The Bulldogs punter is the lone Mountain West representative among the country’s top holders.
Contact/Follow @MattK_FS & @MWCwire
Will Cusick be as busy as last fall?
Watchlist season continued today with the release of the Mortell Holder of the Year Award watchlist. Given annually to the nation’s top holder, there is just one name from the Mountain West among 28 on this year’s preseason list.
Fresno State punter Blake Cusick was among the busiest holders in college football in 2017, helping former Bulldog Jimmy Camacho to connect on 25-of-32 field goal attempts. The latter figure was surpassed by just two others last year. Cusick also handled holding duties on Camacho’s 42 extra point attempts, as well.
Though the honor began as a bit of humor on the part of namesake Peter Mortell, a former Minnesota Golden Gopher punter, the Mortell Award has been noted for its fundraising contributions. It has also generated some interest from programs looking to highlight the individual accomplishments of a position that, as noted by the HOTY Foundation, “has been a thankless job for too long”.
If you don’t believe that, just ask Utah State, which has pushed hard recently for D.J. Nelson, though he was snubbed from the initial list:
Last year’s Mortell Award winner was Oklahoma’s Connor McGinnis. To learn more about how to give toward McGinnis’s charitable drive, visit www.holderoftheyear.org.
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