Patrick Willis Among Butkus Award Candidates

OLE MISS’ PATRICK WILLIS AMONG BUTKUS AWARD CANDIDATES

ORLANDO Ole Miss senior Patrick Willis was named to the preliminary list of 65 candidates for the Butkus Award given to the nation’s best collegiate linebacker, as announced Thursday by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Inc.

Willis, a Bruceton, Tenn., native, is a consensus preseason First Team All-America and has been singled out as the nation’s top inside linebacker by several media outlets. The 6-foot-2, 240-pounder led the nation in solo tackles at 9.0 per game in 2005.

The Butkus Award Watch List will be trimmed to 10 semi-finalists on October 19 and down to three on November 9.  The winner will be announced December 9 at the Butkus Award Gala in Orlando and presented by the award’s namesake, former University of Illinois and Chicago Bear NFL Hall of Fame member Dick Butkus. 

The independent selection committee for the Butkus Award is comprised of some of the nation’s foremost journalists, and additional watch list candidates may be added in the coming weeks due to outstanding in-season play. 

Created in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando Inc., the Butkus Award is regarded as one of the most elite individual honors in college football.  Past recipients include Dan Morgan (2000-Miami (Fla.), LaVar Arrington (1999-Penn State), Chris Claiborne (1998-Southern California), Andy Katzenmoyer (1997-Ohio State), Kevin Hardy (1995-Illinois), Marvin Jones (1992-Florida State) and Derrick Thomas (1988-Alabama).

If 2005 winner Paul Posluszny of Penn State repeats in 2006, he would become just the second linebacker to win the Butkus Award twice in its 22-year history.  Posluszny would tie Brian Bosworth of Oklahoma who received the honor in 1985 and 1986 respectively.

2006 BUTKUS AWARD WATCH LIST

Abbate, Jon		Wake Forest
Alexander, Rufus		Oklahoma
Alston, Mike		Toledo
Andrews, Dwayne		Fresno State
Archer, Brandon		Kansas State
Beason, Jon		Miami (FL)
Bell, Beau		UNLV
Bishop, Desmond		California
Blades, H.B.		Pittsburgh
Bouie, Keyonvis		Florida International
Bunting, Nick		Tulsa
Caldwell, Rob		Navy
Castelo, Matt		San Jose State
Coleman, Nelson		Tulsa
Collavo, Troy		UTEP
Connor, Dan		Penn State
Crum, Maurice		Notre Dame
Davis, Buster		Florida State
Davis, Scott		Washington State
Dizon, Jordan		Colorado
Edwards, Larry		North Carolina
Everett, Earl		Florida
Felder, Anthony		California
Graves, Phillip		North Texas
Hall, KaMichael		Georgia Tech
Hall, Korey		Boise State
Hall, Vince		Virginia Tech
Harris, David		Michigan
Harris, Nate		Louisville
Herron, David		Michigan State
Highsmith, Ali		LSU
Holtzclaw, Dan		Eastern Michigan
Ismail, Ameer		Western Michigan
Jackson, Jarvis		Georgia
Jensen, Cameron		BYU
Jones, Jeremy		UTEP
Koehl, Wade		Houston
Latimer, Zach		Oklahoma
Leman, J		Illinois
Maualuga, Rey		USC
McKeon, Corey		Nebraska
McLee, Kevin		West Virginia
Miles, Edmund		Iowa
Muncy, Matt		Ohio
Nicholas, Stephen		South Florida
Olajubutu, Sam		Arkansas
Phillips, Blair		Oregon
Phillips, Jason		TCU
Posluszny, Paul		Penn State
Rivers, Keith		USC
Sabb, J.K.		Middle Tennessee
Shelvin, John		Minnesota
Siler, Brandon		Florida
Simpson, Juwan		Alabama
Smith, Corey		Cincinnati
Smith, Kelvin		Syracuse
Smith, Mastaki		UAB
Thornton, Dennis		Marshall
Toal, Brian		Boston College
Warren, Justin		Texas A&M
Washington, Thaddaeus Colorado
Waters, Anthony		Clemson
*Willis, Patrick*		*Ole Miss*
Woodyard, Wesley		Kentucky
Zalewski, Mark		Wisconsin

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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