Aug. 23, 2007

University of South Carolina middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley has been selected as one of 35 “players to watch” by the Walter Camp Football Foundation for its prestigious Player of the Year award, the nation’s fourth-oldest individual college football accolade.

“We are proud to continue the great work of Walter Camp and recognize the best college football players in the nation,” Foundation president John Barbarotta said. “This watch list is a great start to what is shaping up to be another exciting year of college football.”

Brinkley, a 6-2, 262-pound middle linebacker from Thomson, Ga., was a first-team All-SEC selection by the Associated Press in 2006 after registering a team-leading 107 tackles, including 85 solo stops. He was fourth in the league and 55th in the country in tackles, averaging 8.2 stops per game. Brinkley, who is also on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy pre-season Watch List which is awarded to the best defensive player in college football, is a consensus pre-season All-SEC first-team selection and an All-America candidate.

The watch list will be narrowed to ten semi-finalists in early November. The 2007 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, which is voted on by the 119 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced on the ESPN/Home Depot College Football Awards Show in December. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation’s annual national awards banquet on January 12, 2008 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.

Last year’s recipient was Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith.

Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation (www.waltercamp.org) – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.