May 22, 2009

University of South Carolina senior center Garrett Anderson is one of 44 players named to the Rimington Trophy Watch List, it was announced this week. The Rimington Trophy annual honors the nation’s top offensive center.

Anderson, a 6-4, 307-pounder from Irmo, S.C., has played in 35 of 38 games over the past three seasons, making 21 starts. He started all 13 games at center for the Gamecocks in 2008.

While more than a dozen All-America football teams are selected annually, the Rimington Trophy committee uses four prestigious teams to determine a winner:

* American Football Coaches Association

* Walter Camp Foundation

* Sporting News

* Football Writers Association of America

The winner of the 10-year old trophy will be honored at Rimington Trophy Presentation banquet at the Rococo Theater in Lincoln, Neb. on January 16, 2009.

Past recipients include Nebraska’s Dominic Raiola, Ohio State’s LeCharles Bentley, Miami’s Brett Romberg, Virginia Tech’s Jake Grove, co-winners Michigan’s David Baas and LSU’s Ben Wilkerson, Minnesota’s Greg Eslinger, West Virginia’s Dan Mozes, Arkansas’ Jonathan Luigs, and Penn State’s A.Q. Shipley. Since its inception the Rimington Trophy Award has raised over $1.3 million for the award’s benefactor, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which is hosted by the Boomer Esiason Foundation that to date has raised over $73 million for CF Research.

Rimington, the award’s namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy’s only double winner as the nation’s finest college interior lineman.

The Rimington Trophy is a fully accredited member of the National College Football Awards Association.