Pre-season watch lists continue to roll out. Thursday we had eight ACC quarterbacks make the watch list for the Davey O’Brien Award.
The ACC has been promoting since the conference media days two weeks ago that it is the conference of quarterbacks. Thursday’s release of the pre-season watch list put some weight on that. The ACC and Big 12 top the conference with eight quarterbacks each on the list. The SEC had six, the Big Ten had four, The American had three, and Conference USA and the Sun Belt had two each. The total list is 36 candidates.
The ACC QBs
Here are the ACC candidates:
Cade Klubnik, Clemson, Junior
DJ Uiagalelei, Florida State, Redshirt Senior
Haynes King, Georgia Tech, Redshirt Junior
Cam Ward, Miami, Senior
Grayson McCall, NC State, Graduate Student
Preston Stone, SMU, Redshirt Junior
Kyle McCord, Syracuse, Senior
Kyron Drones, Virginia Tech, Redshirt Junior
Who Else?
Eleven of the players were semifinalists for the award in 2023, although some were with different schools in 2023: Carson Beck, Brady Cook, Jaxson Dart, Quinn Ewers, Dillon Gabriel, Jordan McCloud, Kyle McCord, Jalen Milroe, Kaidon Salter, Shedeur Sanders, and DJ Uiagalelei.
This is the 48th annual version of the award. There will be eight more players added through the first eight weeks of the season as chosen by the award’s subcommittee. That would put the working total at 44.
The Davey O’Brien Award Logistics
There will be a cut down to 35 candidates with the release of the mid-season watch list on October 29th. The lists of semifinalists will be announced on November 12th. Three finalists will be announced on November 26th. The winner will be announced at the Home Depot Awards on December 12th.
There is also a fan-voting element to the award on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Candidates who get fan votes will earn bonus points with the committee considerations. The fan voting begins October 29th.
The entire watch list can be seen here.
The week of award lists can be seen here.
