Auburn football: Bo Nix named to Davey O’Brien Award watch list

Auburn QB Bo Nix goes into his second season with high expectations.

Just one day after senior linebacker K.J. Britt was named to the Bednarik Award watch list, Auburn football has another player on a national award watch list.

On Tuesday,  The watch list for the Davey O’Brien Award, which is given annually the nation’s top quarterback, was announced. Auburn sophomore signal-caller Bo Nix was one of 30 quarterbacks to be named on the list and is one of five QBs from the SEC.

The SEC’s four other representatives are Alabama’s Mac Jones, UGA grad transfer Jamie Newman, Florida’s Kyle Trask and Texas A&M senior Kellen Mond.

Last season, LSU quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner and eventual No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow won the award and he put together a historic season in which he threw for over 5,600 yards to go with 60 touchdowns and only six interceptions.

Now in its 44th year of existence, other recent winners of the award include Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jameis Winston, Deshaun Watson (twice) and Auburn’s Cam Newton back in 2010.

Former Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham was also named to the watch list in 2018 and former Tigers star Nick Marshall also making an appearance back in 2014

As for Nix, the former five-star recruit enjoyed a successful freshman campaign that ended in him being named the SEC’s Freshman of the Year.

The first true freshman to start the season at quarterback for the Tigers since 1946, Nix helped lead Auburn to a 9-4 overall record that included an Iron Bowl win over archrival Alabama.

The 6-foot-2, 207-pound QB certainly experienced his share of growing pains as a freshman but overall, Nix completed 57.6 percent of his passes for 2,542 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions while adding 313 yards and seven additional TDs on the ground.

With players like Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Fromm all leaving the conference, Burrow is expected to be one of the best quarterbacks in the conference this upcoming season.

The addition of Britt on the Bednarik Award watch list and Nix being on this watch list shows that the media has fairly high expectations for Gus Malzahn’s squad in 2020. Nix is unlikely to be the last Tiger on a preseason watch list, which will be revealed in the coming days.