University of Tennessee Athletics
Dobbs Named To Walter Camp Award Watch List
July 15, 2016 | Football
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Tennessee senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs has been named to the 2016 Walter Camp Player of the Year Preseason Watch List, as announced on Friday by the Walter Camp Foundation.
PRESEASON WATCH LISTS
Walter Camp Player of The Year
Maxwell Award
Chuck Bednarik Award
Derek Barnett, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cameron Sutton
Bronko Nagurski Trophy
Derek Barnett, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cameron Sutton
Davey O'Brien Award
Doak Walker Award
Wuerffel Trophy
Dick Butkus Award
Mackey Award
Outland Trophy
Ray Guy Award
Rimington Trophy
Jim Thorpe Award
The Walter Camp Player of the Year award is the nation's fourth-oldest individual college football accolade.
Dobbs is also on the preseason watch lists for the Maxwell Award, the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award and the Wuerffel Trophy. He started all 13 games for the Vols last season and is 14-5 in his last 19 starts. During that span, Tennessee has averaged 34.2 points and more than 424 yards of total offense per game. Last season, Dobbs threw for 2,291 yards and 15 touchdowns while also rushing for 671 yards -- the most ever by a quarterback at Tennessee. He is one of just three SEC quarterbacks in the last 20 years to have 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in the same game -- joining Johnny Manziel and Tim Tebow -- having accomplished that feat twice over the past two seasons (against Georgia in 2015 and South Carolina in 2014).
In all, 31 schools and 11 conferences (including independents) are represented on the Walter Camp Player of the Year Preseason Watch List. The list includes 30 offensive players (15 quarterbacks, 11 running backs and four receivers) and 11 defensive players (five linebackers, five defensive backs and one defensive end).
"We are proud to continue the great work of Walter Camp and recognize the best college football players in the nation," Foundation president Robert Kauffman said. "This watch list is a great start to what is shaping up to be another exciting year of college football."
The watch list will be narrowed to 10 semi-finalists in mid-November. The 2016 Walter Camp Player of the Year award is voted on by the 128 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors. The winner will be announced live on ESPN's SportsCenter on Thursday, Dec. 8. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation's 50th annual national awards banquet on Jan. 14, 2017, at the Yale University Commons in New Haven, Conn.
Appearing on the preseason Watch List is not a requirement for a player to win the Walter Camp Player of the Year award or be named to the Walter Camp All-America team.
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 eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation (www.waltercamp.org; @WalterCampFF) -- a New Haven-based all-volunteer group -- was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.
The Walter Camp Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) which encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. The 22 awards boast over 700 years of tradition-selection excellence. Visit www.NCFAA.org to learn more about our story. The members of the NCFAA unveiled their preseason watch lists over a 12-day period this month. Sixteen of the association's 22 awards selected a preseason watch list and the NCFAA has spearheaded a coordinated effort to promote each award's preseason candidates.
