Shaun Alexander Freshman Award: Excellence in College Football
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00and we'll see you next time on the show.
00:08The Sean Alexander freshman of the year award first given out
00:12in twenty eighteen Trevor Lawrence a worthy recipient and
00:16now Sean becoming a standard of excellence in college football
00:20to the top true or redshirt freshman around the nation. How
00:24did this award come together? How much fun have you had
00:27selecting the recipients the last few years in college
00:29football? Man, you know, gosh, it's been about nine, ten years
00:33now. Mike Griffith, who's a great reporter for Georgia. He
00:37was at Alabama when I was there went on to Tennessee, then the
00:41Michigan and then and then the Georgia. He was a president of
00:45the Football Writers Association and he said, hey, now you're
00:49retired love to get you a part of college football. You've
00:52been a great guy, great ambassador for your school and
00:55just football in general. How do we how do I get you a part of
00:58college football? And he said, hey, we're thinking about
01:01helping look at some of the nominees for other awards and
01:05then picking the freshman All-American team. And then he
01:08said, hey, we're thinking about naming the award after
01:10somebody who wants somebody whose name is who's young enough.
01:13They could be relevant. Players could kind of remember them.
01:15At least their parents will. And I said, oh, let me think
01:18about that. And he's like, Sean, it's you like you've been
01:21around us. We just want to make sure we were. And and so it
01:24was a great honor. And then we went through picking out the
01:27nominees. No one was talent. You know, we turn on that film.
01:30We're like, oh, who's that guy? You know, whatever position,
01:33just a dominant performer. The second one was character. And
01:37that was just, you know, they always say, Sean, you're young
01:39enough that we wouldn't want somebody's mishaps to mess you
01:43up, you know? And so I always say, we don't have to be
01:45Mother Teresa. You just can't throw a drink on her.
01:50The number three was Ambassador, which meant that you
01:52could speak on behalf of your university. We just really
01:54called the schools and be like, what do you think about this
01:56guy? And then the fourth one was a legend. And the NFL
01:58always says, you know, once a player, forever a legend. And
02:02we just want to say, man, we think of this guy and he's got
02:05NFL type talent. And we've been so proud of the committee
02:08with the writers, with the Maxwell Football Club, a part
02:11of their awards family, just picking out some great guys.
02:15You know, you know, you take the last few years, Brock
02:18Bowers, Drake May, Caleb Downs won it from from last year.
02:23Just a lot of fun getting to know these guys, getting to
02:25kind of go through the whole process with all these guys,
02:27even on my birthday, when we do the hot list, hot 37 list
02:31and going from those guys from 18 to 19 year old little
02:34boys to grown men by the time they get out of college and
02:37go to pros. Just a lot of fun walking through the whole
02:40process.