Johnson Named to Walter Camp Award Watch List
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Miami Hurricanes sophomore RB Duke Johnson added a fourth preseason watch list to his résumé Friday. The 2012 ACC Rookie of the Year was named to the 2013 Player of the Year Watch List by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
The Walter Camp Football Foundation’s Player of the Year Award is the nation’s fourth-oldest individual college football accolade. Miami has had two players win the Walter Camp award – Vinny Testaverde in 1986 and Gino Torretta in 1992.
Johnson, who was a second-team Walter Camp All-American selection in 2012, is one of 50 players named to the preseason list is one of four ACC players on the list, joining Tajh Boyd (Clemson), Logan Thomas (Virginia Tech) and Sammy Watkins (Clemson).
In all, 37 schools are represented on the list with defending national champion Alabama having four players.
The Miami product has also been named to the watch lists for the Paul Hornung Award (most versatile player in college football), the Maxwell Award (college player of the year) and the Doak Walker Award (best college running back). Johnson enjoyed one of the greatest freshman seasons in Hurricanes history in 2012, amassing 2,060 all-purpose yards and 13 TDs, while breaking Clinton Portis’ 13-year-old school freshman rushing record with 947 yards. His 892 kick return yards were a single-season record, while also tying the school single-season mark with two kick returns for touchdowns.
The watch list will be narrowed to 10 semi-finalists in mid-November. The 2013 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, which is voted on by the 125 NCAA Division I FBS head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced live Thu., Dec. 12, on ESPN’s SportsCenter. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation’s annual national awards banquet Jan. 11, 2014, at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
Appearing on the 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) – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.
Season tickets for the 2013 football season are on sale now. To purchase season tickets, call the UM Athletic Ticket Office at 305-284-2263 or buy online at www.CanesTix.com.
For the latest information on the Miami Hurricanes, follow us on Twitter, @MiamiHurricanes, and check out the official football blog, www.theufootball.com.
