Inside The Huskies

UW's Molden Named Pac-12 Player of the Year by Pro Football Focus

Recognition continues to pile up for the talented Husky defensive back who's headed to the NFL.

Dan Raley

Elijah Molden is done with college football, but it's not done with him yet.

On Wednesday, Pro Football Focus named the University of Washington defensive back as the Pac-12 Player of the Year, this after earlier selecting the departing senior as a second-team All-America pick.

While appearing in just four games, Molden showed enough of his savvy, aggressive football skills to win over this group. 

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound player from West Linn, Oregon, finished with 26 tackles, including one tackle for loss, an interception against Utah and a pair of pass deflections. He also went from starting nickelback to No. 1 free safety before the season was out.

For Molden, football recognition is nothing new — it's come to him nonstop since the end of the 2019 season.

On Tuesday, Molden was named first-team All-Pac-12 by the conference, which made him a repeat selection.

A year ago at this time, he was coming off a Las Vegas Bowl performance that made him the game's Most Valuable Player. 

Molden, a finalist for the William F. Campbell trophy given to the college game's best athlete and student combined, is on the watch or final list for four other awards. 

Before going through the NFL combine and draft, he'll appear in the Senior Bowl at the end of January.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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