Less than 100 days until the 2012 football season kicks off and UCF has already picked up a national honor. Senior center Jordan Rae was selected to the Rimington Trophy Watch List, which is given to the top center in the country.
A total of 50 players from the FBS received a spot on the watch list, including five from Conference USA. The Rimington Trophy has been awarded every season since 2000, and is named after Dave Rimington who was a first-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1983. During his college career at Nebraska, Rimington won the 1981 and 1982 Outland Trophy, the 1982 Lombardi Award, was a two-time All-American and served as a two-time Academic All-American.
The Rimington Trophy committee uses these four prestigious All-America teams to determine a winner: American Football Coaches Association, Walter Camp Foundation, Sporting News and Football Writers Association of America. The center with the most first-team votes will be determined the winner, and if there is a tie, second-team votes will be used in the process. If there remains a tie, the honoree will be determined by the Rimington Trophy committee.
The winner will be honored at the Rimington Trophy presentation banquet at the Rococo Theater in Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 12, 2013.
A native of Weston, Fla., Rae has served as UCF’s starting center since his sophomore year in 2010 when he started 13 of the Knights’ 14 games. That year the Black and Gold claimed the C-USA title as well as an AutoZone Liberty Bowl victory over Georgia, and Rae helped UCF’s offense average 374.0 yards per game and tie for the second-most rushing touchdowns in school history with 36.
Rae then started all 12 contests in 2011 as a junior, as the Knights outscored opponents 325-220 and averaged 406.8 yards per game compared to opponents finishing with 303.3 yards per game.