Lombardi Award Watch List 2015: Full List Released

The Rotary Lombardi Award committee announced the 2015 preseason watch list Tuesday. The honor, which has been handed out since 1970, is given to the player voted as the best lineman or linebacker in college football.  

It's one of the few awards that can be won by players on either side of the ball. Offensive and defensive linemen are eligible for the trophy, which is, of course, named after legendary football coach Vince Lombardi.

Here's a look at the complete group—including last year's winner, Scooby Wright III from Arizona—on the initial watch list, per the award's official site:

Name	Pos.	School	Name	Pos.	School
Jatavis Brown	LB	Akron	Kaydon Kirby	C	North Texas
Reggie Ragland	LB	Alabama	Andrew Ness	C	Northern Illinois
Ryan Kelly	C	Alabama	Boomer Mays	LB	Northern Illinois
A'Shawn Robinson	DT	Alabama	Steve Elmer	OG	Notre Dame
Ronald Blair	DE	Appalachian State	Nick Martin	C	Notre Dame
Scooby Wright III	LB	Arizona	Ronnie Stanley	OT	Notre Dame
Chris Stone	DE	Arkansas State	Jaylon Smith	LB	Notre Dame
Matt Hugenberg	OL	Army	Sheldon Day	DT	Notre Dame
Jeremy Timpf	LB	Army	Jarron Jones	DT	Notre Dame
Avery Young	OT	Auburn	Joe Schmidt	LB	Notre Dame
Cassanova McKinzy	LB	Auburn	Joey Bosa	DE	Ohio State
Andrew Billings	DT	Baylor	Taylor Decker	OT	Ohio State
Spencer Drango	OT	Baylor	Pat Elflein	OG	Ohio State
Shawn Oakman	DE	Baylor	Adolphus Washington	DT	Ohio State
Kyle Fuller	C	Baylor	Darron Lee	LB	Ohio State
Kamalei Correa	DE	Boise State	Dominique Alexander	LB	Oklahoma
Marcus Henry	OG	Boise State	Eric Striker	LB	Oklahoma
Rees Odhiambo	OT	Boise State	Emmanuel Ogbah	DE	Oklahoma State
Tanner Vallejo	LB	Boise State	Ryan Simmons	LB	Oklahoma State
Alex Huettel	C	Bowling Green	Robert Nkemdiche	DT	Ole Miss
Tejan Koroma	OL	BYU	Laremy Tunsil	OT	Ole Miss
Bronson Kaufusi	DE	BYU	DeForest Buckner	DE	Oregon
Manoa Pikula	LB	BYU	Tyler Johnstone	OT	Oregon
Joe Ostman	DE	Central Michigan	Isaac Seumalo	C	Oregon State
Ramadan Ahmeti	OL	Central Michigan	Anthony Zettel	DT	Penn State
Blake Serpa	DL	Central Michigan	Adam Bisnpwaty	OL	Pittsburgh
Parker Ehinger	OG	Cincinnati	Alex Lyons	LB	Rice
Silverberry Mouhon	DE	Cincinnati	Andrew Reue	OL	Rice
Graham Stewart	LB	Connecticut	Steve Longa	LB	Rutgers
Matt Skura	C	Duke	Alex Barrett	DL	San Diego State
Zeek Bigger	LB	East Carolina	Darrell Greene	OL	San Diego State
J.T. Boyd	OG	East Carolina	Pearce Slater	OL	San Diego State
Ike Harris	OT	East Carolina	Christian Tago	LB	San Jose State
Montese Overton	LB	East Carolina	Taylor Lasecki	C	SMU
Pat O'Connor	DE	Eastern Michigan	Joseph Scelfo	C	South Alabama
Great Ibe	LB	Eastern Michigan	Joshua Garnett	OG	Stanford
Antonio Morrison	LB	Florida	Blake Martinez	LB	Stanford
Trevon Coley	DT	Florida Atlantic	Davion Pierson	DT	TCU
Michael Wakefield	DE	Florida International	Praise Martin-Oguike	DL	Temple
Denzell Perine	DE	Florida International	Tyler Matakevich	LB	Temple
Reggie Northrup	LB	Florida State	Sedrick Flowers	OG	Texas
Terrence Smith	LB	Florida State	Myles Garrett	DE	Texas A&M
Greg Pyke	OG	Georgia	Kingsley Keke	DT	Texas A&M
Jordan Jenkins	LB	Georgia	Adrian Bellard	OT	Texas State
Leonard Floyd	LB	Georgia	Le'Raven Clark	OT	Texas Tech
Joseph Peterson	LB	Georgia State	Alfredo Morales	OL	Texas Tech
Adam Gotsis	DT	Georgia Tech	Trent Voss	DE	Toledo
Ben Clarke	OL	Hawaii	Dalton Bennett	OG	Troy
Marc Millan	LB	Idaho	Tyler Roberts	DE	Troy
Mason Monheim	LB	Illinois	Chris Taylor	OG	Tulane
Dan Feeney	OG	Indiana	Royce LaFrance	DE	Tulane
Mykheal Quave	OT	Louisiana-Lafayette	Garrett Stafford	OT	Tulsa
Dominique Tovell	LB	Louisiana-Lafayette	Thomas Niles	DE	UCF
Gerrand Johnson	DT	Louisiana-Monroe	Kenny Clark	DT	UCLA
Hunter Kissinger	LB	Louisiana-Monroe	Myles Jack	LB	UCLA
Vernon Butler	DT	Louisiana Tech	Caleb Benenoch	OL	UCLA
Sheldon Rankins	DE	Louisville	Eddie Vanderdoes	DL	UCLA
James Burgess	LB	Louisville	Max Tuerk	C	USC
Vadal Alexander	OG	LSU	Hunter Dimick	DE	Utah
Toby Weathersby	OT	LSU	Nick Vigil	LB	Utah State
Clint Van Horn	OT	Marshall	Kyler Fackrell	LB	Utah State
DJ Hunter	LB	Marshall	Ken Ekanem	DE	Virginia Tech
Jovan Santos-Knox	LB	Massachusetts	Dadi Lhomme-Nicolas	DE	Virginia Tech
Jack Allen	C	Michigan State	Tylor Harris	DT	Wake Forest
Shilique Calhoun	DE	Michigan State	Brandon Chubb	LB	Wake Forest
Jack Conklin	OT	Michigan State	Nick Kwiatkoski	LB	West Virginia
T.T. Barber	LB	Middle Tennessee	Forrest Lamp	OL	Western Kentucky
Darius Johnson	OG	Middle Tennessee	Nick Holt	LB	Western Kentucky
Ian Seau	DE	Nevada	James Kristof	OL	Western Michigan
Isaiah Folasa-Lutui	OG	New Mexico State	Willie Beavers	OL	Western Michigan
Landon Turner	OG	North Carolina	Vince Biegel	LB	Wisconsin
Caleb Peterson	OG	North Carolina	Eddie Yarbrough	DE	Wyoming

Wright joined a list of past winners that includes Cornelius Bennett, Chris Spielman, Warren Sapp, Orlando Pace, Julius Peppers and Terrell Suggs, among others. Ohio State, which features five players on the watch list, has captured the award a record six times.

Along with the Lombardi Award, the Arizona linebacker captured the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Jack Lambert Award for his outstanding 2014 campaign. He also earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Those accolades were certainly warranted after he racked up 163 total tackles, 29 of which were for a loss, to go along with 14 sacks and six forced fumbles. He was a destroyer in the middle of an otherwise lackluster defense that gave up 28 points per game.

Although he enjoyed a standout year, he's striving to become an even better all-around player, as noted by Daniel Berk of the Arizona Daily Star: "There is a lot of stuff I need to improve on. People talk about how I had such a good year, but in my eyes, I didn't have that good of a year. I see the bad things I should have right and could have helped the team be better."

His most direct competition at the outset is Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa. A finalist last year, he'll look to build off of a season in which he racked up 55 total tackles, 13.5 sacks and four forced fumbles as part of a Buckeyes team that captured the national title.

Other notable contenders include Baylor defensive end Shawn Oakman, who became an Internet sensation last season due to his size, Notre Dame offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley and Alabama defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson.

Much like last season, it should be a highly competitive race that goes down to the final weeks.