Aug. 18, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - Southern Utah's Tysson Poots, Cal Poly's Asa Jackson and UC Davis' Sean Kelley have been named Great West Conference Preseason Players of the Year by the league coaches. The selections were announced by the conference office on Wednesday.

Poots, a senior wide receiver from Las Vegas, Nev., was selected the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year on the heels of numerous preseason national honors. Last month, Poots was named a preseason All-America and placed on the Walter Payton Award watch list by The Sports Network. He is the leading returning FCS receiver in the country in yards per game, receptions per game and scoring after he finished second in those three categories last year. Poots is a two-time All-GWC and All-America honoree and is SUU's career leader in receptions and receiving yards. He averaged 9.4 receptions, 120.1 yards and 10.0 points per game last season.

Jackson gets the nod from the coaches as the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. The Mustangs' cornerback from Sacramento, Calif., received first-team All-Great West Conference honors each of the last two seasons. Last season he recorded 48 tackles (31 solo) for an average of 4.4 per game. Jackson also had six passes broken up and two interceptions in 2009. As a freshman, Jackson led the GWC in passes defended with 10 passes broken up and two interceptions for a 1.09 per game average, as well as fumbles forced with three.

Kelley, a junior kicker from Clovis, Calif., was selected by the coaches as the Special Teams Player of the Year. The Aggies will again depend on Kelley's leg as he is a two-time all-conference honoree. As a freshman in 2008, he led the league in field goals (10-13, .769) and was perfect on 42 PATs. Last season he hit 80 percent of his field goal attempts (12-15), including a career-best 52-yard strike in a win vs. Cal Poly.

The 2010 GWC football season gets underway on September 2, when North Dakota travels to Idaho for a Thursday night contest. The remaining conference teams open their seasons on Saturday, September 4.