RG3 Among Walter Camp Players to Watch
7/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 18, 2011
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III was listed as one of 40 "players to watch" for the Walter Camp Player of the Year award, as announced by the Walter Camp Football Foundation Monday.
The junior Heisman candidate has also been named to the preseason watch lists for the Maxwell and O'Brien awards. Griffin III, a preseason All-America projection by Athlon Sports, is one of seven Big 12 Conference student-athletes and one of 15 quarterbacks on the Walter Camp watch list.
RG3 is joined by Houston's Case Keenum, TCU's Tank Carder and Texas A&M's Jeff Fuller as the only watch list members playing for universities in Texas. Griffin III, Justin Blackmon (Oklahoma State), Ryan Broyles (Oklahoma), Michael Egnew (Missouri), Fuller, Landry Jones (Oklahoma) and Brandon Weeden (Oklahoma State) represent the Big 12 on the watch list.
Griffin III returned from a knee injury to lead Baylor to the 2010 Texas Bowl, the Bears' first bowl game in 16 seasons. RG3 threw for school records of 3,501 yards and 22 touchdowns and was an honorable mention selection for Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year by the league's coaches in his redshirt sophomore campaign. The former All-American track hurdler received his undergraduate degree in political science in December 2010.
The Walter Camp award was first presented in 1967 and is the nation's fourth-oldest individual college football accolade. The watch list will be narrowed to 10 semi-finalists in November, and the 2011 Walter Camp Player of the Year, which is voted on by the 120 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced live on ESPN SportsCenter on December 8. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation's annual national awards banquet on January 14 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
Walter Camp, "The Father of American football," first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp, a former Yale University athlete and football coach, is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to 11 men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.
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