University of Houston Athletics
Kolb Named To O'Brien Watch List
8/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 28, 2006
HOUSTON, Texas - For the third time in his University of Houston career, senior quarterback Kevin Kolb has been selected to the prestigious Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award Watch List, as it was announced on Monday.
A 2006 Heisman Trophy candidate, Kolb is one of three quarterbacks from Conference USA on the list, joining UTEP's Jordan Palmer and Paul Smith from Tulsa. Kolb was honored earlier this summer when he was named to the Maxwell Award Watch List. He also was picked as the preseason Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year.
Kolb enters his senior season this fall as one of the nation's top offensive stars. Kolb has started 36 straight games, which is number one in the nation among Division I-A quarterbacks. A preseason selection by The Sporting News as its Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year, Kolb enters the 2006 season with 9,155 passing yards as well as 9,752 yards of total offense, numbers that rank him No. 1 among active career leaders.
Kolb passed for a career-best 3,258 yards last season en route to being selected Third Team, All-Conference USA. In 2005, Kolb passed David Klingler as the school's all-time leader in total offense and is on the verge of owning all the UH passing/total offense numbers
Celebrating 30 years, the O'Brien Award is the oldest and most prestigious award in the country for college quarterbacks and is named in honor of the late Davey O'Brien. O'Brien led the TCU Horned Frogs to the 1938 national championship and was the first player to win the Heisman, Walter Camp and Maxwell awards in one season.
Semifinalists will be announced in early November as voted on by the O'Brien Selection Committee, made up of a nationwide panel of sportswriters, commentators and former O'Brien Award winners. The committee will then narrow the field to three finalists before announcing a winner on ESPN's Home Depot College Football Awards Show scheduled for Dec. 7, 2006, at 7 p.m. EST. The winner will then be honored on Feb. 19, 2007, at the 30th annual Davey O'Brien Awards Dinner at The Fort Worth Club in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.
Last year's winner was Vince Young from The University of Texas who led the Longhorns to their first Big 12 Championship since 1996 and their fourth National Championship. With the national title down to a final play, Young scrambled untouched for an 8-yard touchdown stunning No. 1 Southern California with a 41-38 Rose Bowl victory. He was the third overall pick by the Tennessee Titans in the 2006 NFL draft.
The Davey O'Brien Foundation was established in 1977 to present the O'Brien Memorial Trophy, recognizing an outstanding college football player in the five southwestern states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. In 1981, the award was redirected to be national in scope but limited to quarterback, the favorite position of the award's namesake, Davey O'Brien. The award carries with it a $10,000 grant to the scholarship program of the university in which the winner is enrolled. A high school scholarship program began in 1986, awarding a $20,000 college scholarship to an outstanding senior student-athlete in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex each year. Since 1977, the Davey O'Brien Foundation has awarded more than $250,000 to the various O'Brien winners' universities and more than $400,000 to deserving high school students.
Four Cougars have been selected to preseason watch lists, including senior center Sterling Doty (Rimington Award), senior outside linebacker (Wade Koehl) and junior offensive tackle SirVincent Rogers (Lombardi Award.)
---www.KolbHeismanWatch.com---
