Walter Camp Announces Finalists for 2023 Player of the Year Award
Three quarterbacks comprise the list of finalists for the Walter Camp Football Foundation 2023 Player of the Year award. Senior signal-callers Jayden Daniels (LSU), Bo Nix (Oregon) and Michael Penix, Jr. (Washington) are finalists for the nation’s fourth-oldest college football award.
The 2023 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, who is voted on by the 131 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced on Thursday, December 7 during ESPN’s The Home Depot College Football Awards Show.
USC quarterback Caleb Williams was the 2022 Walter Camp Player of the Year.
Daniels has led the 13th-ranked Tigers to a 9-3 record this season. He has thrown for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns, while adding 1,134 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Daniels has completed 72.2 percent (236-of-327) of his passes and has thrown for 300 or more yards seven times.
Nix has passed for 3,906 yards and 37 touchdowns for the fifth-ranked Ducks (11-1), who will play Washington in the Pac-12 Championship Game on December 1. Nix, who has completed 78.6 percent (315-of-401) of his passes this season, has added 159 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
Penix, Jr. has passed for 3,899 yards and 32 touchdowns for the third-ranked Huskies (12-0), who earned a berth in the Pac-12 Championship Game on December 1. Penix, Jr. has thrown for 300 or more yards eight times this season and has added three rushing touchdowns.
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 – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and continue the tradition of selecting an annual All-America team. Visit www.waltercamp.org.
The Walter Camp Football Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. Visit www.ncfaa.org.