FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — The Wuerffel Trophy announced it has named BYU quarterback Taysom Hill to its 2015 watch list Wednesday of 80 players from college football’s Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Wuerffel Trophy, known as “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service,” is presented annually by the All Sports Association in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Named after 1996 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel from the University of Florida, the Wuerffel Trophy is awarded to the FBS player that best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.
Hill led the Cougars to a 4-0 start in 2014 before a season-ending injury in his fifth game. The 6-foot-2, 232-pound senior completed 66.7 percent of his passes for 975 yards and seven touchdowns in 2014, adding another 460 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground. A 2015 Maxwell Award Watch List and Preseason Phil Steele All-Independent team selection, Hill is BYU’s career leader in quarterback rushing yards and No. 11 in career total offense with 6,478 total yards. The Idaho product served a mission to Sydney, Australia.
Voting for the Wuerffel Trophy is performed by a national selection committee that includes college football television and print media, industry notables, former head coaches and prior Wuerffel Trophy recipients.
Nominations for the Wuerffel Trophy are made by the respective universities’ Sports Information departments and will close on October 15. A current list of nominees can be found at www.wuerffeltrophy.org. Semifinalists for the award will be announced on Nov. 3 and finalists will be announced on Nov. 24. The formal announcement of the winner will be on Dec. 8 at the National Football Foundation’s press conference in New York City.
The presentation of the 2015 Wuerffel Trophy will occur at the 47th Annual All Sports Association Awards Banquet on Feb. 12, 2016 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Past winners of the Wuerffel Trophy are: Rudy Niswanger (LSU-2005), Joel Penton (Ohio State-2006), Paul Smith (Tulsa-2007), Tim Tebow (Florida-2008), Tim Hiller (W. Michigan-2009), Sam Acho (Texas-2010), Barrett Jones (Alabama-2011), Matt Barkley (USC-2012), Gabe Ikard (Oklahoma-2013) and Deterrian Shackelford (Ole Miss-2014).
The Wuerffel Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) which encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. The 22 awards boast more than 700 years of tradition-selection excellence. Visit www.NCFAA.org to learn more about our story.
Beginning in 2015, The Home Depot College Football Awards will have a new home at the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience in downtown Atlanta. Airing live on ESPN on December 10, 2015, college football’s brightest stars will be honored for their performance on and off the field.
The members of the NCFAA are unveiling their preseason watch lists over a 11-day period this month. Sixteen of the association’s 22 awards select a preseason watch list and the NCFAA has spearheaded a coordinated effort to promote each award’s preseason candidates. Following is the complete 2015 preseason watch list calendar: