Murray On Davey O’Brien Watch List
By Danny Bishop
FOOTBALL
Georgia junior quarterback Aaron Murray has been selected as one of 34 quarterbacks nationwide for the 2012 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Watch List, according to announcements on Wednesday.
Murray has also been nominated for the 2012 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.
The Davey O’Brien Award is given to the nation’s best college quarterback. Quarterbacks from all 124 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools are eligible for the award until the field is narrowed to 16 semifinalists on Monday, October 22nd. The Foundation and the Selection Committee will announce three finalists on Monday, November 19th.
The 2012 Davey O’Brien winner will be announced on The Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday, December 6th. The 36th Annual Davey O’Brien Awards Dinner will be held February 18, 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas.
A Tampa, Florida, native, Murray finished the 2011 season with a school record 35 touchdown passes and set a school record for touchdown responsibility by a quarterback in a season with 37 (two rushing). Murray is the SEC’s leading active player in total offensive yards (6,476), completions (447), touchdown responsibility (65), touchdown passes (59) and passing yards (6,198). He also graduated in May 2012 and is now in graduate school.
Murray, who has also been named to the Maxwell and Manning award watch lists, is one of six quarterbacks from the SEC included on the Davey O’Brien list.
In addition, Murray is among 117 nominees who have been nominated for the 2012 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. The award, which is administered by the American Football Coaches Association, has recognized a select group of college football players committed to making a difference in their communities.
Murray’s lengthy list of community service projects includes volunteering with the Special Olympics, Extra Special People, the Wheelchair Football Championships, Healing Place Of Athens, Camp Sunshine and Dawgs Battling Breast Cancer, as well as taking part in reading and after school programs at local elementary schools and visiting patients at several hospitals.
Georgia leads the nation with 13 Good Works team honorees since the award’s inception in 1992. The Dawgs’ previous honorees are Alec Millen in 1992, Travis Jones in 1993, Brian Smith in 1995, Matt Stinchcomb in 1997 and 1998, Brett Millican in 2000, Jon Stinchcomb in 2001, David Greene in 2003, D.J. Shockley in 2005, Quentin Moses in 2006, Kelin Johnson in 2007, Jeff Owens in 2009 and Aron White in 2011.