We aren’t even in to the silly season of preseason award watch lists, but you can never be too early for a good list right? On Tuesday, the Rimington Award announced its spring award watch list, a list that included Wisconsin’s junior center Dan Voltz.
It was an interesting inclusion, especially because Voltz wasn’t exactly a major participant in the spring. On the flip side, Voltz started all 14 games last season, helping to block for one of the best overall rushing games in the history of Wisconsin Badgers football.
Wisconsin averaged 468.9 yards of overall offense, the third highest mark in school history. That offense also included the second-highest rushing total in a single season by a running back, with Melvin Gordon going for 2,587 yards on the year.
Voltz made the watch list for the second straight season, after being named to the same list last year. He was never named to another watch list last season, but this could be a different year for one of the best centers in the Big Ten.
The Rimington Award goes to the nation’s best center and Voltz’s name is one of 52 included on the preseason watch list. He’s also one of six centers in the Big Ten named to this watch list.
Getting on the preseason award watch list isn’t a new thing for the Badgers though. Voltz gives the Badgers a preseason candidate for the Rimington Trophy for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. He joins John Moffitt (2009), Peter Konz (2010, 2011) and Travis Frederick (2012) — each went on to become NFL draft picks — as preseason honorees in that timeframe.
However, only one Wisconsin Badgers player has ever won the award. Al Johnson took home the honors in the 2002 season.
The Rimington Trophy uses the All-America teams named by the Walter Camp Foundation, Sporting News and Football Writers Association of America to determine the recipient of the award. The winner will be recognized at the Rococo Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Jan. 16, 2016.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
