Notre Dame Football: Brandon Wimbush Not on Davey O’Brien Award Watch List

The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award watch list, released today, features 13 seniors, 12 juniors and a sophomore. It includes signal callers from the North Texas Mean Green, the UMass Minutemen, Buffalo Bulls and Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.

It does not include Brandon Wimbush, the presumptive starting quarterback for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

While being named to the watch list is not a prerequisite for being named a semifinalist on Nov. 6, a finalist on Nov. 19 or a winner on Dec. 6, it’s really no surprise that Wimbush wasn’t named.

The Davey O’Brien National Selection Committee has never bestowed their award on the guy under center in South Bend, Ind. You — yes, you — have the power to effect change.

Beginning Sept. 4, you can vote for Wimbush — or Ian Book, Avery Davis or Phil Jurkovec — once per day at VoteOBrien.org until they shut us all down. The committee has given us 5 percent of the total balloting.

So if you don’t want Andrew Ford or Tyree Jackson or Kyle Kempt or Nathan Rourke — guys you wouldn’t know without an Athlon season preview — taking home this hardware at year’s end, you’d better set up that daily calendar reminder now.

Here’s the list of the 26 quarterbacks those stuffed shirts in Fort Worth, Texas believe are better than Wimbush:

Jake Bentley, South Carolina Gamecocks

Jake Browning, Washington Huskies

Kelly Bryant, Clemson Tigers

Mason Fine, North Texas

Ryan Finley, N.C. State Wolfpack

Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi St. Bulldogs

Andrew Ford, UMass

Jake Fromm, Georgia Bulldogs

Will Grier, West Virginia Mountaineers

Justice Hansen, Arkansas State Red Wolves

Justin Herbert, Oregon Ducks

Alex Hornibrook, Wisconsin Badgers

Jalen Hurts, Alabama Crimson Tide

Tyree Jackson, Buffalo

Daniel Jones, Duke Blue Devils

Kyle Kempt, Iowa St. Cyclones

Brian Lewerke, Michigan State Spartans

Drew Lock, Missouri Tigers

Trace McSorley, Penn State Nittany Lions

McKenzie Milton, UCF Knights

Nathan Rourke, Ohio Bobcats

Brett Rypien, Boise State Broncos

Jarrett Stidham, Auburn Tigers

Brent Stockstill, Middle Tennessee

Khalil Tate, Arizona Wildcats

Manny Wilkins, Arizona State Sun Devils

Previous Davey O’Brien Award winners include: Jim McMahon (BYU, 1981), Todd Blackledge (Penn State, 1982), Steve Young (BYU, 1983), Doug Flutie (Boston College, 1984), Chuck Long (Iowa, 1985), Vinny Testaverde (Miami, 1986), Don McPherson (Syracuse, 1987), Troy Aikman (UCLA, 1988), Andre Ware (Houston, 1989), Ty Detmer (BYU, 1990-91), Gino Torretta (Miami, 1992), Charlie Ward (Florida State, 1993), Kerry Collins (Penn State, 1994), Danny Wuerffel (Florida, 1995-96), Peyton Manning (Tennessee, 1997), Michael Bishop (Kansas State, 1998), Joe Hamilton (Georgia Tech, 1999), Chris Weinke (Florida State, 2000), Eric Crouch (Nebraska, 2001), Brad Banks (Iowa, 2002), Jason White (Oklahoma, 2003-04), Vince Young (Texas, 2005), Troy Smith (Ohio State, 2006), Tim Tebow (Florida, 2007), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma, 2008), Colt McCoy (Texas, 2009), Cam Newton (Auburn, 2010), Robert Griffin III (Baylor, 2011), Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M, 2012), Jameis Winston (Florida State, 2013), Marcus Mariota (Oregon, 2014), Deshaun Watson (Clemson, 2015-16) and Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma, 2017).