Sept. 20, 2012
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Georgia Tech senior guard Omoregie Uzzi has been named one of 30 candidates for the prestigious 2012 Senior CLASS Award, one of the top individual honors in college football for performance on and off the field.
Uzzi, a second team All-American in 2011 and a candidate for the Outland Trophy in 2012, is one of 30 candidates from FBS schools for the Senior CLASS Award.
The CLASS Award takes into account four areas of excellence — community, classroom, character and competition. The complete list of candidates follows this release.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Uzzi, who has already earned his undergraduate degree at Tech, has started 28 career games and has been a leader of one of the nation’s most prolific offensive attacks. He was a selection for preseason first team All-ACC by several publications. Uzzi is one of four Senior CLASS Award candidates from the ACC.
The 2012 candidate class includes eight All-Americans from last season. Sixteen of the 30 candidates have maintained a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. Four of the candidates were recognized by the College Sports Information Directors of America as 2011 Capital One Academic All-Americans. Twenty-four student-athletes play for teams that participated in a bowl game last season. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2012-13 bowl season.
The candidate class will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
Candidates
Ryan Aplin, Arkansas State
Montee Ball, Wisconsin
Johnthan Banks, Mississippi State
Matt Barkley, USC
Jeff Braun, West Virginia
Rex Burkhead, Nebraska
Blaize Foltz, TCU
Rashard Hall, Clemson
Duron Harmon, Rutgers
Dustin Hopkins, Florida State
Travis Johnson, San Jose State
Barrett Jones, Alabama
Landry Jones, Oklahoma
Collin Klein, Kansas State
A.J. Klein, Iowa State
Jeff Locke, UCLA
Philip Lutzenkirchen, Auburn
Riley Nelson, Brigham Young
Kyle Quinn, Arizona
Sean Renfree, Duke
Adam Replogle, Indiana
Luke Ruff, Wyoming
Jason Schepler, Northern Illinois
John Simon, Ohio State
Caleb Sturgis, Florida
Matt Summers-Gavin, California
Manti Te’o, Notre Dame
Omoregie Uzzi, Georgia Tech
Stephen Warner, Louisiana Tech
Tyler Wilson, Arkansas
