Hilltoppers land seven on Phil Steele’s All-Conference USA Teams

On the heels of their 7-5 inaugural season in Conference USA, Phil Steele has certainly done WKU justice in his C-USA All-Conference selections, choosing seven Hilltoppers to one of his three teams. Spoiler alert: Just like the conference’s picks, no WKU player made first team offense (shocker), defense (sarcastic shocker) or special teams (eh..).

Brandon Doughty, Leon Allen, Jared Dangerfield and Cameron Clemmons were selected to Steele’s 2nd Team offense and Taywan Taylor and Forest Lamp was named to the 3rd Team. Only one player was mentioned on the defensive teams in Nick Holt, and no one – not even good ol’ Garrett Schwettman – was named All-CUSA in special teams. Give it a year, and Kylen Towner will be there, I promise you.

Once again, it’s another All-Conference team that sees Marshall’s Rakeem Cato ahead of Doughty, something I still don’t agree with, but I guess past success in the conference outweighs first year success. I suppose.

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A look at the first teams between Steele and the conference, and there’s actually only one difference – Steele had

of Rice on his first team while

was voted onto the first team by the league’s coaches. But, outside of that, Steele and the conference see eye to eye basically on the entirety of the first team offense. Not bad.

Its almost laughable to think in 365 days time, we’ll be saying “remember when Doughty was a 2nd Teamer?” after he was granted his sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. I believe most – if not all – of those 2nd Teamers for the Hilltoppers will move over to the top team, as Allen and Dangerfield certainly have that potential. And Taylor isn’t going anywhere either.

In terms of conference inclusion, I still don’t see why Kenneth Dixon is, again, a 2nd Teamer. I think of him as a scarier opponent to face than Jordan Howard. But, maybe that’s just me.

Any surprises, be it WKU or as a conference, on the list for you? Let us know below in a comment or on twitter @WaveTheRedTowel.