Wazzu Cougar offensive guard Cody O’Connell leads a 5-pack of players from the state of Washington on the 2017 Outland Trophy Watch List. The Outland Trophy is awarded to the best college football interior lineman in the country by the Football Writers Association of America, who released the list on Thursday,
Washington State University and the University of Washington account for half of the total number of players out of the PAC-12 on the list. Four Huskies join O’Connell, defensive tackles Vita Vea and Greg Gaines and offensive linemen Trey Adams and Coleman Shelton.
Washington’s Vita Vea, left, sacks Rutgers quarterback Chris Laviano in the
first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016, in Seattle.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
O’Connell joins Texas offensive tackle Connor Williams as two of the three 2016 Outland Trophy finalists are on the 2017 watch list. Both finished behind Alabama offensive tackle Cam Robinson last year and was selected in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
81 standout interior linemen from all 10 Division I FBS conferences are represented on the list. The ACC (17) led all conferences with members on the Watch List, followed by the Big Ten and SEC (11 each), Pac-12 (10), American Athletic (9), Big 12 and Mid-American (6 each), Independents and Mountain West (4 each), Conference USA (2) and Sun Belt (1).
The list includes 24 offensive tackles, 21 defensive tackles, 20 centers and 16 offensive guards.
(KPUG – Doug Lange; Information from the