Hawaii Football: Rico Bussey Is MWwire’s Preseason Newcomer Of The Year
The wide receiver transfer from North Texas could play a huge role in the Hawaii Warriors’ transition to the Todd Graham era.
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The offense is reloading.
Despite missing nearly all of 2019 with injury, Hawaii football fans had to be excited when they learned in June that our pick as the Mountain West’s preseason newcomer of the year, wide receiver Rico Bussey Jr., would transfer into the program.
After receiving only limited playing time as a freshman in 2016, Bussey Jr. spent 2017 and 2018 starring at North Texas, one of Conference USA’s most potent offenses. Across those two seasons, he caught 115 passes for 1,694 yards and 19 touchdowns, including eight for 109 yards in UNT’s championship game loss to Florida Atlantic in 2017.
He looked primed to do more of the same for the Mean Green in 2019, grabbing five passes for 150 yards and a score in the team’s first three games, before a torn ACL wiped out the majority of his senior season. Now a grad transfer, he’ll have big shoes to fill as Hawaii hopes to replace a pair of 1,000-yard receivers, but it will hardly be a shock if he ends up as simply the next Warriors playmaker to reach that benchmark.
Also received votes: Justin McGriff, WR, Utah State; Brock Miller, LB, Boise State; Nick Null, P/K, Wyoming; Xavion Steele, DB, Utah State; Isaiah Tufaga, LB, Hawaii
