NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Walter Camp Football Foundation has announced BYU quarterback Taysom Hill as one of the fifty “players to watch” for its 2015 Player of the Year award, the nation’s fourth-oldest individual college football accolade.
Hill has been already been named to 2015 watch lists for the Maxwell Award, Davey O'Brien Award and Wuerffel Trophy. The 6-foot-2, 232-pound senior has also been named a 2015 Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent selection.
Hill makes the list for the second consecutive year after leading the Cougars to a 4-0 start in 2014 before a season-ending injury in his fifth game. In just over four games he passed for 975 yards, seven touchdowns and rushed for 460 yards with eight touchdowns. Hill eclipsed the career 4,000 passing yard mark (4,052) with his 200-yard performance against Houston in 2014 in addition to the 2,000 rushing yard mark (2,036) with his 160 rushing yards on the night. He is one of 14 FBS quarterbacks to reach that mark before their junior season, including Colin Kaepernick, Johnny Manziel, Tim Tebow and Robert Griffin III.
In 2013, Hill passed for 2,938 yards and rushed for 1,344. He also passed for 19 touchdowns and rushed for another 10.
In all, 37 schools are represented on the list with defending national champion Ohio State having five players, including its three quarterbacks. There are 37 offensive players (22 quarterbacks, 11 running backs and four receivers) and 13 from the defensive side of the ball (5 linebackers, 5 defensive backs and 3 defensive linemen).
“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 2015 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, which is voted on by the 128 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced live on ESPN SportsCenter on Thursday, December 10. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation’s annual national awards banquet on January 16, 2016 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
Appearing on the preseason Watch List is not a requirement for a player to win the Walter Camp award or be named to the All-American 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 1 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.