The Louisville Sports Commission’s Paul Hornung Award has officially announced its finalists. The award, has been taken down from a pool of hundreds to four; in honor of Hornung himself the LSC looks to find the most versatile athlete in college football annually with this honor.
The selection committee has limited their pick to Western Kentucky’s Antonio Andrews, Kent State’s Dri Archer, West Virginia’s Tavon Austin and Southern California’s Marqise Lee.
All four of these talented athletes have one final chance to impress the decision committee, Andrews will suit up with Western to take on Central Michigan in the Little Ceaser’s Bowl, December 26th; Archer’s Golden Flashes are taking to the road to play in the GoDaddy.com bowl against Arkansas State January 6th.
Meanwhile Austin will be on display with the Mountaineers Saturday, December 29th in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl against Syracuse. Two days later Lee’s Trojans square off with Georgia Tech in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.
Sponsored by Texas Roadhouse, the award counts fan votes as supporters of all four of these guys can vote online at www.votepaulhornung.com until January 7th when voting will officially end.
The official winner of the 2013 Paul Hornung Award will be announced that following Tuesday, and a banquet in Louisville will be held in that player’s honor.
This will be the third year of the award’s existence, the inaugural winner, Stanford’s Owen Marecic is currently in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns. Last year’s victor, Georgia’s Brandon Boykin is also a current pro with the Philadelphia Eagles.
After much deliberation these four athletes were determined to be the biggest playmakers of the many considered; the top ten not included in the final four actually shook out like this. (These are in no particular order)
Ameer Abdullah- Nebraska
Jonathan Banks- Mississippi State
Kenjon Barner- Oregon
Giovani Bernard- North Carolina
Adrian Bushell- Louisville
Brandon Carter- Texas Christian
Todd Gurley- Georgia
Duke Johnson- Miami (FL)
Venric Mark- Northwestern
Sammy Watkins- Clemson
Image courtesy of The Paul Hornung Award
