It wouldn’t be a preseason watch list without at least one Oregon Duck on it.
Duck tight end Terrance Ferguson was selected to the preseason watch list for the 2024 John Mackey Award and offensive lineman Iapani Laloulu was named to the watch list for the 2024 Rimington Trophy.
The Mackey Award is presented to the nation’s top tight end, while the Rimington Trophy honors college football’s most outstanding center, which Laloulu will be playing for Oregon for the first time this season.
Ferguson enters 2024 with 91 career receptions, tied for fourth-most all-time by an Oregon tight end and just 33 away from the program record of 124 that was set by Ed Dickson. Ferguson’s 13 career touchdown receptions are tied for third-most by an Ducks tight end, and he is just two back of the program record of Josh Wilcox’s 15.
The current tight end was a first-team all-Pac-12 selection in 2023, tying for the second-most receptions in a season with a career-high 42. He racked up 414 receiving yards and six touchdowns, tied for sixth-most among all FBS tight ends. Five of Ferguson’s six touchdowns came in the final six games, including a pair of TD grabs in the Pac-12 Championship Game against Washington.
Georgia’s Brock Bowers won last year’s Mackey Award for the second time.
Laloulu, known as Poncho to his teammates, is expected to take over as Oregon’s starting center following the departure of Jackson Powers-Johnson, who in 2023 became the first Duck and first Pac-12 player to win the Rimington Trophy. Laloulu was a 247Sports true freshman all-American while playing in all 14 games for the Ducks.
He made his first career start at center in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl against Liberty. Showing his versatility, Laloulu played 413 total snaps as a freshman, including 183 at right guard, 116 at left guard and 111 at center, while helping the Ducks lead the nation with just five sacks allowed.
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