Winterswyk and Potter Selected to Lombardi Award Watch List

The Rotary Lombardi Award Committee announced its official watch list for the 2010 Rotary Lombardi Award, Friday (Aug. 27), which features a pair of Boise State linemen in Ryan Winterswyk and Nate Potter. 

The watch list is comprised of players who earned All-American honors or first team All-Conference honors last season. Watch list candidates can also be selected through a nomination process. The Rotary Lombardi Award recognizes the top college football player that: "is a down lineman, end-to-end, either on offense or defense, who sets up no farther than 10 yards to the left or right of the ball, or linebackers who set up no farther than five yards deep from the line of scrimmage."

This marks the second watch list nomination of the fall for both Winterswyk and Potter.

Winterswyk was also selected as a player to watch for the Bronco Nagurski Award following an outstanding junior season playing at defensive end for Boise State. Winterswyk (6-4, 270), a senior from La Habra, Calif. (La Habra HS), finished 2009 with 41 tackles, 17.0 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks. For his role in helping lead the Broncos to a perfect 14-0 record, Winterswyk was named first-team All-Western Athletic Conference for the second consecutive season.   

Potter (6-6, 300), a junior from Boise, Idaho (Timberline HS), is coming off the best season of his collegiate career in which he played to first-team All-WAC honors as an offensive lineman. Potter started the final nine games of the 2009 season for Boise State and was a key contributor on the nation's top scoring offense that averaged 42.2 points per game. Potter was also named to the Outland Trophy watch list during the summer.

The Rotary Lombardi Watch List will be periodically updated throughout the 2010 season until the list is narrowed to 12 semifinalists. The winner will be voted on by the Rotary Lombardi Selection Committee, which is comprised of more than 500 members; all past winners and finalists, all FBS head coaches and a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. The winner will be honored Dec. 7-8 in Houston, Texas.