The Mountain West Conference announced its 2024 predicted order of finish and preseason All-Mountain West football team Wednesday morning.

Fresno State garnered four preseason All-Conference selections: junior quarterback Mikey Keene, senior running back Malik Sherrod, senior offensive lineman Mose Vavao, and senior defensive lineman Devo Bridges. This marks the most selections for the Bulldogs since 2022, when they claimed five and secured the Mountain West Championship.

Predicted to finish third in the Mountain West with four first-place votes, Fresno State follows Boise State at No. 1 and UNLV at No. 2 in the conference’s preseason rankings.

Last season, Sherrod received 2023 All-Mountain West honorable mention, while Vavao and Bridges earned second team honors at their positions and were also named to the preseason team last year.

Related Story: 14 Bulldog Football Players Named to Preseason All-Mountain West Team

Player Highlights and Expectations

Keene returns in his second season with Fresno State. Last year he threw for 2,976 yards and 24 touchdowns while completing 283 of 422 pass attempts. He’s ranked No. 4 in the MW in passing yards, No. 3 in passing yards per game (248.00), and No. 2 in passing touchdowns. His 67.06 completion percentage in 2023 led the conference and tied for sixth all-time in program history. Keene had three games with four passing touchdowns, the most by any QB in the conference. He concluded the 2023 campaign as the Isleta New Mexico Bowl Offensive MVP.

This will be the first season where Sherrod will be the Bulldogs’ premier back. He had 966 yards and nine touchdowns on 172 carries in 2023 but missed time to an early injury. Among the returning conference leaders from a season ago, he returns with the second-most rushing yards. He set the program’s single-game record with 312 all-purpose yards at San Diego State last November. He received MW Special Teams Player of the Week (Nov. 6) and Hornung Award National Player of the Week (Nov. 7).

Vavao started at right guard in each game last season. Throughout his career, he’s started in 42 consecutive games of 46 career games played dating back to 2020. He helped the offense pass for 282.23 yards per game, the second most in the MW and the fifth-most total offensive yards a season ago with 5,041 total offensive yards.

Bridges was the only Bulldog on the defensive line to start each game a season ago. He led the Bulldogs’ defensive line with a single-season career-high 51 tackles (30 solo), while adding 8.0 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, one interception, eight quarterback hurries, and one pass breakup. He became just the second Bulldog defensive lineman to grab an interception since 2018.

Looking Forward to the 2024 Season

The Bulldogs will kick off the 2024 season at Michigan, the defending national champion, on Aug. 31.

Tickets for the game in Ann Arbor are now on sale and can be purchased here.