The Rimington Trophy Preseason Watch List was announced on Friday and yet another member of the Florida Gators earned a mention on one of many prestigious previews for the coming fall.
Offensive lineman [autotag]Jake Slaughter[/autotag], who played in all 12 games in 2023 and started eight games at center, got the call this year after filling in admirably when previous starting center [autotag]Kingsley Eguakun[/autotag] was sidelined with an injury for most of the season. The then-redshirt sophomore made the most of the opportunity handed to him, ultimately grading out as the No. 14 center in the FBS with an 81.2 PFF grade across 622 total snaps.
Slaughter is the only member of Florida’s returning corps to earn a spot among PFF’s top interior offensive linemen this fall.
“His 81.2 grade was second among Power Five centers to only Jackson Powers-Johnson,” according to PFF. “He also performed well in our GAS metric, which allows him to dominate on zone runs. His 82.4 run-blocking grade on such plays tied for fifth in the Power Five. As a full-time starter in 2024, expect Slaughter to become much more of a household name.”
Rimington Award announcement
“The Rimington Trophy is proud to release its 2024 preseason Watchlist. This year, the Trophy committee worked with Pro Football Focus (PFF) to narrow down its list to the top 40 centers. PFF grades every player on every play of every game on how well they execute their given assignment.
“That play-by-play grading allowed the Trophy committee to create a watchlist based both on nominations from the schools and data provided by PFF. Once the season begins, schools will be able to nominate their centers for late addition based on in-season merit.”
Full Rimington Award watch list
| CONF | SCHOOL | NAME | CLASS | |||
| ACC | ||||||
| Boston College | Drew Kendall | RS JR | ||||
| Florida State | Maurice Smith | RS SR | ||||
| Louisville | Pete Nygra | RS JR | ||||
| NC State | Zeke Correll | GRAD | ||||
| Virginia | Brian Stevens | GRAD | ||||
| Wake Forest | Luke Petitbon | JR | ||||
| Stanford | Levi Rogers | 5th YR SR | ||||
| Georgia Tech | Weston Franklin | SR | ||||
| SMU | Justin Osborne | GRAD | ||||
| SEC | ||||||
| Alabama | Parker Brailsford | RS SO | ||||
| Florida | Jake Slaughter | RS JR | ||||
| Georgia | Jared Wilson | JR | ||||
| Oklahoma | Branson Hickman | RS SR | ||||
| Tennessee | Cooper Mays | SR | ||||
| Texas | Jake Majors | SR | ||||
| Auburn | Connor Lew | SO | ||||
| Missouri | Connor Tollison | JR | ||||
| Mississippi State | Ethan Miner | SR | ||||
| South Carolina | Vershon Lee | RS SR | ||||
| BIG12 | ||||||
| Cincinnati | Gavin Gerhardt | RS SR | ||||
| BYU | Connor Pay | SR | ||||
| Oklahoma State | Joe Michalski | RS SR | ||||
| Arizona State | Leif Fautanu | RS SR | ||||
| BIG10 | ||||||
| Iowa | Logan Jones | SR | ||||
| USC | Jonah Monheim | RS SR | ||||
| Purdue | Gus Hartwig | SR | ||||
| Oregon | Iapani Laloulu | SO | ||||
| Ohio State | Seth McLaughlin | GRAD | ||||
| Nebraska | Ben Scott | SR | ||||
| PAC12 | ||||||
| Oregon State | Van Wells | JR | ||||
| Con-USA | ||||||
| Liberty | Jordan White | JR | ||||
| New Mexico State | Canaan Yarro | RS SR | ||||
| American | ||||||
| Army | Brady Small | SO | ||||
| Navy | Brent Self | SR | ||||
| FAU | Federico Maranges | RS SR | ||||
| UAB | Brady Wilson | RS SR | ||||
| UTSA | CJ James | RS SR | ||||
| MAC | ||||||
| Western Michigan | Jacob Gideon | SR | ||||
| Sun Belt | ||||||
| Louisiana | Landon Burton | RS SR | ||||
| Arkansas State | Jacob Bayer | SR |
Florida’s 2024 season opener
Florida and the No. 19 Miami Hurricanes open their schedule on Aug. 31 in Gainesville, Florida. Kickoff time is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on ABC Sports.
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