BYU Football: Phil Steele's All-Independent Team Loaded with Cougars

College Football Expert Phil Steele released his All-Independent, Conference USA, and Mountain West teams today. It should come as no shock to anyone that Phil Steele's All-Independent Team is made up of quite a few BYU players, but there were a few surprises for the Cougars. In total, the Cougars had 16 players named to Steele's First or Second Team. You can check out Steele's full All-Independent and the other all-conference teams here.

One surprise is junior college transfer Devon Blackmon's inclusion as a first team wide receiver while UTEP transfer Jordan Leslie was left off the list completely. Blackmon's potential given his athleticism and speed is definitely something to be excited about, but Leslie already has 2015 yards receiving and 15 touchdowns at the D-I level.

BYU not having any offensive lineman named to the first team is disappointing, but does not come as a huge surprise given the struggles the Cougar offensive line has had recently. It is promising to see redshirt freshman, Tuni Kanuch, who just recently switched over to from the defensive line make the second team.

Even after losing Kyle Van Noy, Spencer Hadley, and Uani Unga to graduation last year the BYU linebacking core made a strong showing with outside linebackers, Alani Fua and Bronson Kaufusi making the first team, and middle linebacker Manoa Pikula making the second.

Here's the complete list of Cougars that made the list:

1st Team

QB Taysom Hill

RB Jamaal Williams

WR Devon Blackmon

DL Remington Peck

LB Bronson Kaufusi

LB Alani Fua

CB Robertson Daniel

S Craig Bills

RET Adam Hine

2nd Team

TE Devin Mahina

OL Michael Yeck

OL Tuni Kanuch

OL Solomone Kafu

DL Marques Johnson

LB Manoa Pikula

P Scott Arellano

Let us know what you think. Are there any glaring omissions? Or are any of these players a stretch?