Korey Bosworth named to Hendricks Watch List

The Ted Hendricks Foundation is pleased to announce several additions to the 2009 Ted Hendricks Defensive End of the Year Award’s watch list. Early-season performance, injuries and other factors are considered when making these changes.

This week’s additions include Korey Bosworth (UCLA), Carlos Dunlap (Florida), Tom Keiser (Stanford), Jake Laptad (Kansas), Josh McNary (Army), Von Miller (Texas A&M), Aaron Morgan (Louisiana-Monroe), Derrick Morgan (Georgia Tech), Brooks Reed (Arizona) and Greg Romeus (Pittsburgh).

The Mid-Season Watch List, which will remain open to adjustments through our first vote, now includes 40 players. This list will be shortened to include five to six finalists in the final weeks of the season, and the final vote will be concluded on December 7th. The 2009 Hendricks Award winner will be announced December 9th.

Now in its eighth season, the Ted Hendricks Award is named in honor of college football’s first three-time first-team All-American. On-field performance, exceptional winning attitude, leadership abilities, contributions to school and community and academic preparedness are some of the criteria used to determine the Award’s winner. Members of the national media, head coaches, professional scouts and former winners are included in the Award’s voting committee. Candidates may represent any class (Freshman through Senior) as well as any four-year NCAA accredited school. The candidate’s primary position must be Defensive End.

Previous recipients of the Hendricks Award include: Terrell Suggs (Arizona State), David Pollack (Georgia), Elvis Dumervil (Louisville), LaMarr Woodley (Michigan), Chris Long (Virginia) and Brian Orakpo (Texas).

Leftovers

Wayne Moses on the “revenge” factor:
You talk about personnel and personalities and everything, and really, the guys who are going to decide it are between the lines. All the, ‘He said, they said’ – we need to get to be 2-0. Whoever that is in front of us, we need to be 2-0.”

Korey Bosworth on the similarities between last year and this year:
“It’s a totally new team. They have a home game, which is a completely new thing. It’s a whole different factor when you have to leave your home field. We really have to throw everything out the window. Wipe your hands clean, start fresh.”

Korey Bosworth on revenge:
“I’m sure they’ve got that in their minds. But we have that in our minds, too; that nobody thinks we can win. Even last year, nobody thought we could win. When we did, a lot of jaws dropped. But people still doubt us.”

Jeff Baca on pregame hype:
“We’re all buying into this. We have to get this program back to the top, where it belongs. Hopefully, this is our season right here. This is our hype, bringing UCLA back up to the top.”

Korey Bosworth on a mission

After passing along the well-wishes by both myself and those who so kindly chimed in on the blog, Korey Bosworth had this to say…
“I feel that since I’ve come back, I have more of a purpose. Every year since I was a kid, my grandpa went to every practice, every game. It was harder in the past couple years because of the cancer to get out here. He would try to make it as much as he can. Now he is not going to be able to be here. It will make me more focused, more energetic, more purposed to get where I want to go, which is the NFL. That was his dream, as well. Me winning this San Diego State game, that’s the first stepping stone in making sure my grandpa is looking down on us, still happy.”

Post-practice update

UCLA got after it on Tuesday morning, with Rick Neuheisel unafraid to get in his players’ faces. There was much 7-on-7 work as the Bruins try to absorb the schemes thrown at them, but there was also plenty of scrimmage.

I spoke with Neuheisel, Kevin Prince, Brian Price, Korey Bosworth and Norm Chow, and I’ll have that in a moment. Stay tuned.

Post-practice wrap-up

Practice ended with a spirited run-through, with players seeming very eager for Saturday to come quickly.
The Bosworths were back on the field, Jeff Baca was primarily running with the first team at left guard and Tony Dye appears to have separated himself at strong safety.

I spoke with several players about the air-quality issue, and they are very anxious to play. They do not want to see this game postponed…