Award updates

It's just the third week of the season, but it's never too soon to start talking about the major college football awards. I mean, heck, Temple is plugging it's running back as a Heisman candidate.  Let's try to sort through the pretenders and contenders. I'll try to give updates every week.

Here's what different committees are saying about their awards:

• The Davey O'Brien Award (best QB) presents its marquee matchup between No. 9 Iowa and No. 24 Arizona. The game features two top QBs — Nick Foles and Ricky Stanzi.

The folks at Stanford don't want you to forget about Andrew Luck. They send along the following from his most recent game:

• Completed 11-of-24 passes for 151 yards and two TDs in Stanford’s 35-0 victory at UCLA
• Also rushed for a career high 63 yards on seven carries.
• Helped Stanford to its first victory in the Rose Bowl since 1996
• Stanford is 2-0 on the season and ranked 19^th in both the AP and USA Today Coaches’ Polls this week
• Stanford improved to 10-4 with Luck as a starter

Andrew Luck highlight video from last week

• Meanwhile, the good folks at the Football Writers Association of America, which I am a member of, named Ohio State CB Chimdi Chekwa as the defensive player of the week.

•  The Paul Hornung Award, which goes to the most versatile player in college football, selected nine (NINE?) who stood out last week. They are:
Kentucky's Randall Cobb, Oregon's Kenjon Barner, Troy's Jerrel Jernigan, Michigan's Denard Robinson, Florida's Jeffrey Demps, Rutgers' Joe Lefeged and  Mohamed Sanu, Stanford's Owen Marecic and Michigan State's Keshawn Martin. 

• The John Mackey Award, presented to the best tight end, named Notre Dame's Kyle Rudolph its tight end of the week.

• Last, but not least, the folks over at the Biletenkoff Award (top WR) have provided the top 40 WRs in terms of yardage. No, I'm not listing all 40. But I'll give you the top 5.

Duke's Connor Vernon has 310 yards, Jermain Kearse of Washington has 287, Kealoha Pilares from Hawaii has 280 yards, Bowling Green's Kamar Jorden follows with 279 and Ryan Broyles of Oklahoma is fifth with 266 yards.