Another Bulldog bears watching. Tight end Jared Rice on Mackey Award list

Fresno State tight end Jared Rice, who had a productive end to the 2017 season for the Bulldogs, is one of 64 on the watch list for the John Mackey Award.

The junior from Modesto had 12 of his 22 receptions on the season in the final three games, three for 54 yards in a 20-17 victory over No. 22 Boise State to end the regular season, three for 44 yards in a 17-14 loss to the Broncos in the Mountain West championship and then six for 84 yards in a 33-27 victory over Houston in the Hawaii Bowl. He had two touchdown catches on the season and 17 of his 22 receptions resulted in a first down.

The Bulldogs have had four players selected to watch lists so far — quarterback Marcus McMaryion is on the list for the Maxwell Award, linebacker Jeffrey Allison is on the Chuck Bednarik list and wideout KeeSean Johnson is on the Biletnikoff Award list.

The watch list roll out continues next week with the Jim Thorpe Award and Butkus Award on Monday, the Outland Trophy and Nagurski Award on Tuesday, the Lou Groza Award and Ray Guy Award on Wednesday, the Hornung Award and Wuerffel Trophy on Thursday, and Walter Camp Award on Friday.

The Mackey Award is presented to the outstanding tight end in college football. Rice is one of six players from the Mountain West on the watch list along with John Bates from Boise State, Cameron Butler from Colorado State, Josh Oliver from San Jose State, Dax Raymond from Utah State and Kahale Warring from San Diego State.

This story was originally published July 20, 2018 at 12:25 PM.