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Washington State’s Fred Mauigoa one of 10 Pac-12 centers to earn Rimington watch list nod

Washington State offensive lineman Fred Mauigoa prepares to snap the ball during the second half  against Oregon State in Pullman on Sept. 16, 2017. (Young Kwak / Associated Press)

PULLMAN – Fred Mauigoa’s name will be on a prestigious watch list as he enters his second season as the Washington State Cougars’ starting center.

On Friday, Mauigoa was named to the watch list for the 2018 Rimington Trophy Award, presented annually to the most outstanding center in Division I College Football.

In a league heavy with talent at the center position, Mauigoa is one of 10 Pac-12 centers named to the watch list by the Rimington Trophy Committee. He joins California’s Addison Ooms, Arizona State’s Cohl Cabral, Oregon’s Jake Hanson, Stanford’s Jesse Burkett, Utah’s Lo Falemaka, Arizona’s Nathan Eldridge, Washington’s Nick Harris, Oregon State’s Sumner Houston and USC’s Toa Lobendahn.

Mauigoa, an Iliili, American Samoa, native who started all 13 games for the Cougars last season as a sophomore and anchored the nation’s second-best passing attack, is the first WSU center named to the watch list since Riley Sorenson in 2016.

The award is named after Dave Rimington, a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982 who became the John Outland Trophy’s only two-time winner as the country’s top college interior lineman.

WSU safety Jalen Thompson was named to the John Bednarik Award Watch List earlier in the week.