At the end of the second week of preseason watch lists for several major awards, we find nine ACC centers on the preseason watch list for the Rimington Trophy.
The award is given annually exclusively to a center, the best center, in all of college football. The trophy was first awarded in 2000.
The ACC Centers on the Rimington Trophy Watch List
Here is the list of ACC watchlist nominees.
Drew Kendall, Boston College, redshirt junior
Maurice Smith, Florida State, redshirt senior
Weston Franklin, Georgia Tech, senior
Pete Nygra, Louisville, redshirt junior
Zeke Correll, NC State, graduate student
Justin Osborne, SMU, PhD student
Levi Rogers, Stanford, redshirt senior
Brian Stevens, Virginia, PhD student
Luke Petitbon, Wake Forest, junior
Background of the award
The award is named after former Nebraska center Dave Rimington, who was named an All-American in 1981 and 1982. The award and endowment also serve as a fundraising vehicle for the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which raises awareness for cystic fibrosis. The Rimington Trophy is said to have raised over $5 million for Esiason’s charity.
The trophy committee worked with Pro Football Focus to create the list of nominees this year. PFF provided grades for every center in Division I, which were attached to the nominations made by the schools themselves. Players can be added to the list once the season begins, as it is based on on-field performance.
In November, the Rimington Trophy Committee determines the winner based on votes from three All-American panels. The committee uses votes from the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Sporting News and the Walter Camp Foundation. Full disclosure: The author of the article is a member of the FWAA All-American Committee and therefore has one vote for the Rimington Trophy. First and second place votes are counted and the winner is announced in early December.
Last year’s winner was Jackson Powers-Johnson, center for the Oregon Ducks.
What’s next
The list of award watchlists released this week can be found here.
The full list of Rimington Trophy nominees can be found here.
Next week, the candidates for the Bednarik Award and Butkus Award will release their watch lists. The Bednarik Award will be given to the defensive player of the year. The Butkus Award goes to the best linebacker in the country.
