It’s an individual accolade.

But he couldn’t have done it without the entire team.

For the third time in his career, Bo Levi Mitchell has been voted the West Division finalist for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award.

Mitchell helped guide Calgary to its third-consecutive first-place finish at 13-5 after starting all 18 games for the Stamp.

And after the season he’s had, he’s earned the praise.

“I’m happy for him, I think it’s deserved,” said head coach Dave Dickenson. “We’ve had a great year, and he’s been our leader. I thought he’s played one of his best years.”

Mitchell crested the 5,000-yard mark for the second time in his career, completing 356 of 585 passes for 5,124 yards and tallying 35 TD’s.

From those numbers, you wouldn’t know it was a year that brought plenty of challenges for the veteran quarterback – as all but one starter in the Stamps receiving corp. suffered season-ending injuries.

“It was definitely different (this year),” Mitchell said. “You know injury wise; we’ve gone through it before where you have a lot of injuries at a position – it was the O line a couple of years back. Hats off to Pat DelMonaco for everything he did, to continue to get guys ready, to have D lineman ready to play for us (back then).

“This year it was Pete Costanza, and everybody having to go through it with receivers. The credit really goes to those guys, the work they’ve put in; Markeith Ambles to be really, really, new to this offence and play one of the harder positions halfway through the year, for Chris and Bakari to come in and learn a brand new offence and produce the way they have.”

Mitchell said everyone within the organization deserves part of the credit for his nomination.

“The stats accumulate on my side, but it’s been an entire group effort,” Mitchell said. “It’s an award for all the O lineman, and everything they’ve done for me this year – keeping me upright. They’ve had to work even harder, too, with what’s happened with the receivers and me having to hold onto the ball for a little bit longer. It’s all the work the receivers put in, the running backs, the coaches, everything everybody has done throughout the entire year.”

He was also quick to thank an especially important person in his life.

“A lot of that goes to my wife, too,” Mitchell said. “She makes it easy on me by taking caring of my daughter so much, and allowing me to free up my mind to think about football.”

The Hamilton Ti-Cats’ Jerimiah Masoli is also vying for the honour after being announced as the East Division nominee.

“I thought he’s had an outstanding season from Game 1 to Game 18,” Mitchell said. “Especially with all the hype surrounding Johnny Manziel earlier in the year. No knock on Johnny, but that creates a lot of pressure for a guy. I thought Masoli made Johnny expendable, and went out there and said ‘no this is my job, I’m going to show everybody that.’ And he’s made Hamilton very, very scary, he has all year.”

However, the competition for the MOP award is a distant second on Mitchell’s mind right now.

His attention at the moment is on preparing to take on a yet-to-be determined opponent in the Western Final on Nov. 18 at McMahon Stadium (insert ticket link here).

“It’s definitely a year where I’m proud of everybody for what we’ve done,” he said. “But you can’t hang your hat on proud – you hang your hat on championships and that’s what we’re striving for.”