LOGAN – Utah State junior quarterback Jordan Love has been named to the Davey O’Brien Award Watch List, it was announced Tuesday by the National College Football Awards Association.
Love, who was a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award as a sophomore in 2018, is one of 30 quarterbacks named to this year’s Watch List, including one of just two Mountain West players, joining Hawai’i quarterback Cole McDonald. The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation’s best college quarterback and is the oldest and most prestigious national quarterback award.
Eight other semifinalists from last year’s Davey O’Brien Award join Love on this year’s Watch List, including Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Notre Dame’s Ian Book, Mason Fine of North Texas, Georgia’s Jake Fromm, Justin Herbert of Oregon, Houston’s D’Eriq King, Trevor Lawrence of Clemson and Shea Patterson of Michigan.
The remaining members of the watch list include: Jake Bentley (South Carolina), Alan Bowman (Texas Tech), Charlie Brewer (Baylor), Joe Burrow (LSU), K.J. Costello (Stanford), J.T. Daniels (USC), Sam Ehlinger (Texas), Feleipe Franks (Florida), Kelvin Hopkins Jr. (Army), Adrian Martinez (Nebraska), Kellen Mond (Texas A&M), Steven Montez (Colorado), James Morgan (FIU), Bryce Perkins (Virginia), Brock Purdy (Iowa State), Desmond Ridder (Cincinnati), Nathan Rourke (Ohio), Nate Stanley (Iowa), Khalil Tate (Arizona) and Zac Thomas (Appalachian State).
Love, a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder from Bakersfield, California (Liberty HS), earned second-team all-Mountain West honors in 2018 as he set five school records with 32 touchdown passes, 3,567 passing yards, seven 300-yard passing games, 234 points responsible for and being named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week five times. Love also tied the single-season school record with a pair of 400-yard passing games. Furthermore, Love tied the single-game school record for touchdown passes with five against both UNLV and San José State, becoming just the fifth quarterback in school history to accomplish the feat.
Heading into his junior campaign, Love is 396-of-652 (.607) passing for 5,198 yards and 40 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions during his career, and ranks fourth all-time in school history in touchdown passes, tied for fourth in completion percentage, and 10th all-time in passing yards, completions and total offense (5,426).
Along with being named to the Davey O’Brien Award Watch List, Love has also been named to the Maxwell Award Watch List, annually given to America's College Player of the Year, and is a preseason first-team all-Mountain West selection by both Athlon Sports and Phil Steele’s Magazine.
Sixteen semifinalists for the award will be named on Wednesday, Nov. 13. From that list, the Foundation will announce the three finalists on Monday, Nov. 25. The 2019 Davey O’Brien Award winner will be unveiled live on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 12, during The Home Depot College Football Awards.
The 2019 season marks the 13th year that fans will be invited to participate in the voting process on VoteOBrien.org. Results from the Davey O’Brien fan vote will be combined with the ballots from the selection committee.
The 43rd Annual Davey O’Brien Awards Dinner will be held Monday, Feb. 17, 2020, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Utah State returns nine starters as part of 32 letterwinners, including two All-Americans and eight players that earned various all-Mountain West honors, from last year's team that ended the season ranked 21st in the final Amway Coaches poll and 22nd in the final AP poll as it tied the school record for wins and best record with an 11-2 mark following the Aggies’ 52-13 win against North Texas in the New Mexico Bowl.
Utah State will open the 2019 season on Friday, Aug. 30, at Wake Forest and begin its home season the following weekend against Stony Brook on Saturday, Sept. 7. Mountain West play begins for USU two weekends later at San Diego State on Saturday, Sept. 21.