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Breakout Player of the Year - 2006 | Wilford Timmerman, RB, Houston Renegades |
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After three years of high expectations, and three years of sub 1000 yard rushing seasons, people were starting to say that TImmerman was a bust. That he would not live up to the expectations of the fans and media. Well Timmerman showed this year that he can be productive, and even make an impact for Houston. Timmerman got over 1000 yards for the first time, finishing with 1245 yards. He also averaged over 4.0 yards per carry for the first time with a 4.27 ypc. The Houston RB al showed that he can be a receiving threat. With a total of 13 receptions in three years, Timmerman surprised the league by becoming a weapon running routes. He finished the year with 56 receptions for 418 yards. |
Special Teams Player of the Year - 2006 | Ryan McCellion, WR/KR, Dakota Spirit |
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McCellion had a pretty good sophomore season in the Imperial League. He moved in as a full time starter at WR, and then made the big leap to become the league's best kick returners. He was 5th in the league in kickoff return average with a 27.5 yard average, and was one of 6 players to have a return for a touchdown. And though he only had 6 punt returns on the year, he had an outstanding average of 34.8 yards per return, many of those yards coming on 2 that were returned for touchdowns. |
Offensive Rookie of the Year - 2006 | Tim Austin, RB, Tulsa Cows |
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A nearly unanimous selection, Austin made nearly the impact that Newark's Alan Crespo had in 2005. Things started in a shaky way for Austin, who missed the first two games of the season in a contract holdout. When he for the Cows in week three, he was unimpressive with only 75 yards on 25 carries. After that he was nearly unstoppable. Over the next two weeks he had over 100 yards per game and 3 total touchdowns. Later in the year he made headlines with back to back games of over 200 yards. He finished the year 3rd in the league in rushing, with 1557 yards, and was 3rd in rushing touchdowns with 11. |
Defensive Rookie of the Year - 2006 | Courtney Cleeland, SLB, Hartford Grizzlies |
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Courtney Cleeland was being asked a lot in his first year. As the 9th overall pick in the '06 draft he was being looked on as an impact player and instant starter for a team that has historically been strong on defense. Cleeland responded. He finished the year with 72 tackles and 20 assists. Were he made a big impact though was making big plays. He was 5th in the league with 9.5 sacks, and had forced fumbles. He also recovered a fumble, which he returned for a touchdown. |
Offensive Player of the Year - 2006 | Nigel Booker, QB, Salt Lake City Stallions |
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Nigel Booker was a hands down selection as the top Offensive Player this year, with only four votes going to other players. Booker carried the Stallions to their 4th playoff appearance in a row by throwing for 3967 yards, second most in the league. He broke his own single season touchdown record with 37 this year, compared to only 9 interceptions. He had 3 or more touchdown passes in seven games. |
Defensive Player of the Year - 2006 | Louie Maldonado, DE, St. Louis Cardinals |
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Coming off a year where he won an Imperial Bowl championship, Maldonado did not let up at all. Though his team struggled a bit, missing the playoffs with a 9-7 record, Maldonado actually had a career year. He led he league in sacks with 13.0, was first in the league with 36 quarteback hurries, and was second among defensive ends in the league with 59 tackles. He also had 22 assists, 5 blocked passes, and was second in the leaague with 5 forced fumbles. He recovered one. |
Most Valueable Player - 2006 | Leslie Steiner, QB, Anchorage Lynx |
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It was a battle of the votes against two of the leagues best known quartebacks, but Steiner won out against tough competition for the MVP award from Virgil Sepulveda and Nigel Booker. Steiner was truely impressive though and earned this award as he had the best year of his career, his first with Anchorage. After three successful years in Reno, Steiner was brought in by the Anchorage front office to stabilize their quarterback position. He responded with the fourth best QB rating in the league at 92.7, had 3692 yards passing, and 24 touchdowns to only 9 INTs. What earned him this award though was his ability to guide the Lynx back to the playoffs, tying division foe Albuquerque and NFC team Little Rock for the best record in the league at 12-4. |
Owner of the Year - 2006 | hawkster, Albuquerque Matadors |
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| In the 2006 season preview you could read this in the Matador breakdown...."The Matadors have much of the same team that started the 2005 season. If they get off to a better start this year, the season could go differently, but three wins to a division crown is tough to pull off." That's right, in 2005 this team was picked to win the division and went 3-13. Consensus among league reporters was that Albuquerque was an unknown. Some picked them to win the division, some picked them to finish as low as 3rd. No one could have predicted what did happen though. The Matadors tied for the leagues best record, 12-4, and finished with an amazing conference record of 11-1. They also had to fend off Anchorage to win their first division crown. They finished 5th in the league in offensive scoring, and 4th in the league in defensive scoring. They were 25th and 21st in those categories last year. |
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