LB A.J. Hawk (Green Bay Packers)

[3yardsandacloud]

2004 Lombardi Award Preseason Watch List - The 54 initial candidates

The Rotary Lombardi Award goes annually to the college football lineman -- offense or defense -- who, in addition to outstanding performance and ability, best exemplifies the discipline of Vince Lombardi. As the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, Lombardi first made a name for himself as the smallest but toughest member of Fordham University's "Seven Blocks of Granite," renowned in their day (1934-37) for being the most unyielding line in college football.

The 54 preliminary candidates earned a place on the initial watch list by earning All-American honors at the end of the 2003 season or in previous seasons, or by being named to their respective all-conference team as selected by the conference's head coaches.

2003 LOMBARDI AWARD WATCH LIST
Anthony Alabi, TCU ***
Calvin Armstrong, Wash. St.
Brian Atkinson, No. Illinois
Andy Avalos, Boise State ***
Adrian Awasom, North Texas
Alex Barron, Florida State ***
David Bass, Michigan ***
Michael Boley, Southern Miss
Andy Brewster, North Texas
Wesley Britt, Alabama ***
C.J. Brooks, Maryland ***
Jammal Brown, Oklahoma ***
Nick Bunting, Tulsa ***
Vince Carter, Oklahoma ***
Andrew Clarke, Toledo ***
Dan Cody, Oklahoma ***
Shaun Cody, USC ***
Trent Cole, Cincinnati ***
Ryan Cook, New Mexico ***
Harvey Dahl, Nevada ***
Will Derting, Washington St.
Dusty Dvoracek, Oklahoma
Greg Eslinger, Minnesota
Matt Grootegoed, USC ***
Marquis Harris, Colorado ***
A.J. Hawk, Ohio State ***
Eric Henderson, Georgia Tech
Matt Herian, Nebraska ***
Leroy Hill, Clemson
Derrick Johnson, Texas ***
Nick Kaczur, Toledo ***
Mathias Kiwanuka, Boston Coll
Jamus Martin, Marshall ***
Heath Miller, Virginia ***
Garrett Mills, Tulsa ***
Kirk Morrison, San Diego State
Scott Mruczkowski, BGSU
Michael Munoz, Tennessee
Mike Patterson, USC ***
Erik Pears, Colorado State ***
Rob Petitti, Pittsburgh ***
David Pollack, Georgia ***
Brady Poppinga, BYU ***
Julius Roberts, Boise State ***
Matt Roth, Iowa ***
Adam Seward, UNLV ***
Adam Snyder, Oregon ***
Steve Subia, New Mexico State
Kyle Takavitz, Cincinnati ***
Claude Terrell, New Mexico
Odell Thurman, Georgia ***
Jake VerStraete, No. Illinois
Eric Winston, Miami ****
Zac Woodfin, UAB

[gbearbuck]

who didn't make that list

[BuckNutty]

Bobby Carpenter will be on that list next year.

[sears3820]

Some more Oklahoma bias....4 guys on the watch list.

Puuuuhhhhhlease.

[LordJeffBuck]

Nutty - Carpenter may be better than Hawk this year. He looked like a real stud against KSU, and I expect more of the same this year. Not that Hawk is anything less than excellent, it's just that Carpenter may be even more excellent. Add in Schlegel, and the Bucks may have their best LB corps ever (although the Pepper Johnson, Chris Speilman, Eric Kumerow unit will be very hard to beat).

[ashlandbuck]

Hey Lord

I'll venture to guess that you are a fairly young guy.
The greatest Buckeye LB crew was the 1971 group.
Vic Koegal
Randy Gradishar
Stan White

The '05 LB's will be a good group but it will be difficult to be better than the '71 LB's.

[KillerNut]

It's such a farse.

They should give it to the best LB period. Even if they have never heard of him before the season.

[3yardsandacloud]

Killer, agreed ... the best (watchlist or not) should get the award. BTW, it's an award for linemen ... not just linebackers.

[CleveBucks]

You don't have to be on the watch list to become a semi or finalist. It's just a preliminary listing of the previous year's returning AA's and conference 1st-teamers.

[MililaniBuckeye]

"Nutty - Carpenter may be better than Hawk this year. "

Yeah, and harp-playing monkeys may fly out my butt. Hawk was consistently our most dominating linebacker last year. Carpenter looked great a lot of the time, but Hawk always looked great. Hawk was first-team All-Conference on both the coaches' and media lists, while Carpenter wasn't even an honorable mention on either.

[BuckeyeSoldier]

i love hawk but carpenter is my main man, i grew up LITERALLY right next door to him, i was one year younger and actually beat him up once... lmao.. too bad he moved up to lancaster, woulda loved to been able to train with him and his dad when he was a lil older.. prior to moving to lancaster where his dad coaches he lived in junction city ohio in perry county.. on run around rd.. lol i know you dont care but just gets me thinking... damn.. lol

[buckeyebri]

A.J. is a great example of what coaches know when it comes to recruiting as opposed to the rating services.

OSU will always be Linebacker U in my opinion....

[FKAGobucks877]

Barring injurey, Hawk will be 1st team All-American this year--watch and see.

[Basebuck]

I am a big Hawk backer but I really thought that his production dropped during the last 1/3 of the year. During this time Carpenter surpassed him in my opinion. I cant remember if Hawk was injured though. I just remember the Wisky game and watching Hawk look slow.

[FKAGobucks877]

Hawk is definitely not slow. His numbers MAY (notice the emphasis on may) have dropped towards the end of the year, but only because our opponents were going out of their way to account for him. He's a flat-out stud, as both the coaches and media agreed this year (1st team Big 10).