DALLAS – A trio of standouts, including a pair of Liberty Flames, headline the 2024 preseason Conference USA Football award winners, as chosen by the league’s 10 head coaches.
 
Liberty QB Kaidon Salter was selected as the league’s preseason Offensive Player of the Year, while teammate and LB CJ Bazile Jr., was tabbed as the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. WKU K Lucas Carneiro earned Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year honors.
 
Salter is coming off a banner year that netted him CUSA MVP, CUSA Championship Game MVP and CUSA Michael L. Slive Male Student-Athlete of the Year recognition after completing 177-290 passes for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns while rushing the ball 163 times for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns. With 44 total touchdowns on the year, he led the Flames to a perfect 13-0 regular season and earned CUSA’s first bid to a New Year’s Six bowl game with a Vrbo Fiesta Bowl appearance against No. 8 Oregon. Salter ranked in the top-five nationally in rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (12), passing touchdowns (32), passing efficiency (176.6), yards per completion (16.25) and points responsible for per game (18.9).
 
Bazile Jr., started all 14 games for the Flames at the Joker position and finished the year with 49 tackles, including a team-high 10.5 tackles for loss which ranked fifth in CUSA. A constant presence in opposing backfields, he also paced the Flames with three sacks and recorded a team-high 11 quarterback hurries. Bazile finished eight of the team’s 14 games with at least one hurry. He tallied five stops, including four solo tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss, versus NM State in the CUSA Championship game and posted five more tackles and two quarterback hurries against Oregon in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.
 
Carneiro immediately stepped into kicking duties for the Hilltoppers in his rookie season and connected on all 47 PAT attempts and 9-12 on field-goal attempts. He earned CUSA Special Teams Player of the Week honors after drilling two field goals in his debut against South Florida on Sept. 2, 2023. Against rival MTSU, Carneiro hit a season-long 45-yard try in a 31-10 victory over the Blue Raiders. A member of the CUSA All-Freshman Team, he capped an impressive season with a game-winning 29-yard field goal against Old Dominion in the Famous Toastery Bowl.
 
2024 CUSA Football Preseason Award Winners
 
Offensive Player of the Year
Kaidon Salter, Jr., QB, Liberty
 
Defensive Player of the Year
CJ Bazile Jr., Jr., DE, Liberty
 
Special Teams Player of the Year
Lucas Carneiro, So., K, WKU