One of the rituals of summer is having college football awards organizations start putting out their watch lists and preseason All-American teams for the upcoming season.

Is any one of those groups going to eliminate a player from consideration for a recognition after a great season simply because he wasn’t on the preseason list?

Absolutely not.

No, the watch lists are all about recognizing a combination of past success and future potential.

They can’t see the future, so they have no idea whether a player will struggle or succeed, whether he will stay healthy or get hurt, whether he will be overshadowed by others or be a star.

But since they were good before, they deserve at least some accolades.

That’s the same as with the Countdown to Camp, since the goal of this list is to recognize the players who will impact the upcoming season the most.

It also is predicated on what has happened in the past but that tends to be a good indicator of what might happen moving forward.

The limitations of awards, however, is often they focus on tangible things like stats while players like the next on the list bring so much more to the team.

No. 9: Malik Moore, senior defensive back

If you get the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking to Moore, you’ll be drawn in by his engaging personality and sense of humor — but more than anything by his confidence.

That is a vital trait for a defensive back, since cornerbacks and safeties have to believe in their abilities even when opponents have success. Second-guessing leads to even more disasters.

Moore has been solid on the field during his four-year career as a Cougar (55 total tackles, five interceptions and four pass breakups) but his mental and emotional contributions to the defense overshadow the numbers.

He will once again need to be one of the leaders for the BYU defense, keeping everyone around him prepared and ready to make big plays.

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