The annual rite of releasing preseason watch lists continues unabated Tuesday, with a specific skill position on the offensive side of the ball the latest to unveil its players to watch for the 2013 season.
The Mackey Award, named after former Syracuse and Baltimore Colts great John Mackey, released its 37-player-strong preseason watch list earlier today. The award has been given out annually since 2000 and goes to the top tight end in the country.
Of the 37 players at the position on the initial list, seven apiece are from the Big Ten and Pac-12, the most of any conference. The SEC and ACC are next with five and four, respectively.
Notre Dame (Ben Koyack, Troy Niklas) and USC (Xavier Grimble, Randall Telfer) were the only schools with multiple players.
There were an equal number of juniors and seniors on the list (17), while just three sophomores made the initial.
The 2012 winner of the Mackey Award was Notre Dame’s Tyler Eifert. No semifinalists for last year’s award are included on this year’s list. Washington’s Austin Seferian-Jenkins was one of the eight semifinalists for the 2012 award, but ran into a bit of off-the-field problems this offseason.
