Y-Option's Go Go Go Awards - Week 12

The Best of the West. Our distinct take on college football weekly awards and as always, seen through the lens of the West Coast

Week 12 is complete and the focus of college football continues to sharpen. Oregon looks to be a lock for the Big Ten title game. The Big 12 championship could feature a pair of former Pac-12 schools in Colorado and Arizona State. Washington State saw their dreams of a College Football Playoff appearance disappear in New Mexico. The Heisman race continues to have a strong West Coast flavor with Colorado’s Travis Hunter the favorite but followed by Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, Miami’s Cam Ward (formerly at Washington State) and Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel.

A reminder on what these awards are: they will honor the top players and coaches of the week through the eyes of the West Coast. The 4 honors we will give out every week to coaches and players that pump passion into every play and just keep GO GO GO-ing:

• “My 5-Star QB” - whether or not you were a 5-star recruit out of high school, you played like one this weekend.

• “Go Go Gone” - the most explosive player of the week. Think big chunk plays as explosives and turnovers are the biggest predictor of wins and losses.

• “That Dude!” - player who made an impact on either side of the ball. Not always about your numbers on the stat sheet.

• “Headset Hero” - either a head coach or assistant coach who had their team ready and/or made the right in-game adjustments

Here are our Week 12 winners as we keep you in the know and on the GO GO GO!

“My 5-Star QB” - New Mexico QB Devon Dampier

It was a game where 2 quarterbacks went back and forth making play after play and luckily for the Lobos, their QB made the final big play of the game. A former 3-star recruit and #88 quarterback in the Class of 2023, New Mexico’s Devon Dampier continued to prove himself against competition from bigger conferences as he led his team to a 38-35 win over #18 Washington State, the school’s first win over a ranked opponent since 2003.

The sophomore from Scottsdale’s Saguaro High School, where he played for current Arizona State tight ends coach Jason Mohns, did damage against the Cougars with both his arm and his legs. Dampier ran for 193 yards and 3 scores including the game-winning 1-yard TD run with 21 seconds left. He added 174 yards passing and 42-yard TD pass in the 2nd quarter.

(Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)

While the only other official visit Dampier took out of high school was to Yale, he has proven this season to belong in big time college football. In Week 2 against Arizona, Dampier had 260 pass yards and 3 passing TD with 130 rushing yards and 2 scores against the Wildcats becoming 1 of just 2 FBS QB this season to have 3 pass TD, 2 rush TD and 100+ rush yards in the same game. Since 2014, he’s just 1 of 13 FBS QBs to have over 2,500 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing in the same season joining Heisman winners Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels and Kyler Murray. His 16 rushing TD this season are tied for 8th most in FBS and only behind Army’s Bryson Daily & Alabama’s Jalen Milroe amongst QBs.

“Go Go Gone” - Stanford WR Emmett Mosley V

A 3-star recruit from Southern California, Emmett Mosley V showed flashes in spring ball as an early enrollee true freshman this year. But injuries kept Mosley off the field at the start of the season, not making his season debut until Week 4 at Clemson where he grabbed 7 passes for 48 yards and a touchdown. Those numbers still stood as his career highs as #22 Louisville headed The Farm this weekend, but he topped all 3 in the battle of Cardinal vs. Cardinals.

Mosley re-wrote the Stanford freshman record book with 13 catches and 3 receiving touchdowns, while his 168 receiving yards are the 3rd most ever by a Cardinal true freshman in a game - trailing only Mark Harris (189 in 1993) and Richard Sherman (177 in 2006). The 13 catches are the most by any true freshman in FBS this season, the 3 receiving TD tied with 2 others for the most and the 168 yards are the 3rd most by a true freshman nationally this season.

(Photo courtesy Stanford Athletics)

Perhaps most important was the timing of his scores. After Louisville went up 35-21 with just under 10 minutes to go, Mosley scored 2 of his 3 touchdowns in the final 7 minutes to tie the game. In fact, his final touchdown came on a 4th & 1 with 48 seconds left. Backup quarterback Justin Lamson faked the handoff and then hit Mosley across the middle for a diving 25-yard TD. The Cardinal would then kick a game-winning 52-yard field goal as time expired to snap a 16-game losing streak against ranked opponents and a 12-game home losing streak to FBS opponents.

“That Dude!” - Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter

As someone who could win this award pretty much every week he suits up, Colorado’s do-everything CB/WR Travis Hunter put up an absolute highlight reel in Saturday’s 49-24 win over Pac-12/Big 12 rival Utah.

As a receiver, Hunter had 5 receptions for 55 yards, highlighted by a circus catch late in the 2nd quarter. On 4th & 8 from the Utah 34, Shedeur Sanders had pressure up the middle and lofted one up to the 10-yard line where Hunter elevated and high-pointed a catch over 2 Utah defenders. The next play, Colorado punched it in the end zone for a 21-6 lead.

(Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

As a defender, Hunter made 3 tackles and was in the right place at the right time to catch a deflection for his 3rd interception of the season. He followed that play with a statement, striking the Heisman pose.

And for the first this season, as a runner. Late in the 4th quarter, Colorado ran a reverse with Hunter - a play that looked possibly designed for Hunter to throw a TD to Shedeur Sanders. But Sanders and 2 Utes guarding him and 4 more defenders cut off Hunter’s path to the sideline. So the junior reversed his field, turned on the jets, and dove into the end zone from the 3-yard line. The first rushing touchdown of his career.

Hunter finished the day playing 132 snaps, all 67 snaps on defense and all 65 snaps on offense.

“Headset Hero” - Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham

From being picked last in the Big 12 preseason media poll to now being a game out of 1st place in the conference race, its hard to find a better story in college football this season than Arizona State. Kenny Dillingham has his Sun Devils 8-2 for the first time since 2013.

ASU pulled off the upset of #16 Kansas State in Manhattan thanks to a hot start. The Sun Devils led 21-0 nothing and scored the game’s first 24 points on their way to a 24-14 victory. They handed Kansas State their first home loss of the season (had been 4-0) and its Arizona State’s first road win over a ranked team since 2021 at UCLA.

(Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

The stars of the Sun Devil offense did their part. Quarterback Sam Leavitt had 275 pass yards and his 3rd straight game with 3 pass TD and 0 interceptions. Receiver Jordan Tyson set new career highs with 12 receptions and 176 yards and had his 3rd multi-TD game of his career. And last but not least, do-everything running back Cam Skattebo had 73 yards on the ground and 44 yards receiving for his 6th straight game with 100+ total yards.