Cougars’ Unga is named MWC freshman of year

Instead, Unga sprinted to the forefront because Vakapuna was slowed by offseason ankle surgery and a broken hand suffered early in the season.

The 6-foot, 221-pound back from Provo, Utah, exploded for 1,211 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns and supplied 41 catches for 629 yards and four touchdowns.

Though the Cougars (10-2) still have a game to play — they’ll meet UCLA (6-6) in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22 — Unga is already gathering honors for his exceptional season. On Tuesday he was named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year while being voted to the all-conference second team.

“He has surpassed the expectations we had for him, because we expected Fui to be healthy and be our primary ball carrier and Harvey to be a supplemental role player,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “But with Fui not being at full strength, the roles were reversed. I’m glad Harvey had prepared himself and was ready, but I never saw (the season he had) coming.”

Unga became the first BYU freshman to top 1,000 yards rushing in a season. He needs 6 yards in the Las Vegas Bowl to become the MWC’s all-time leading freshman runner.

• ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM — BYU placed six players on the all-MWC first team, including four on offense: quarterback Max Hall, tight end Dennis Pitta and linemen Ray Feinga and Dallas Reynolds. Defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen and linebacker Bryan Kehl also made the first team.

Sophomore receiver Austin Collie joined Unga on the second-team offense and also earned honorable mention as a kick returner. Senior linebacker Kelly Poppinga was named to the second-team defense and senior defensive back Quinn Gooch received honorable mention.

BYU, which rose to 17th in the BCS standings, is loaded with underclassmen and should return most of its top players next season.

“We have almost our entire offense returning, and we’re getting better and better every week,” Mendenhall said. “We should have most of them for three more years.”