Vlachos On List For Rimington

When Alabama and Kent State open the 2011 college football season in Tuscaloosa on September 3, fans of center play are in for a treat. Both the Crimson Tide and the Golden Flashes will have a center who is on the Watch List for the 2011 Rimnington Trophy, given to the nation’s best center.

William Vlachos, a senior who will be starting for the third year for Alabama, will be joined at Bryant-Denny Stadium in the season-opener by Chris Anzevino of Kent State, a 6-2, 305-pound center.

The two are among 43 players named Wednesday to the watch list for the Rimington Trophy. Among the 43 are 13 from the 2010 watch list.

Vlachos, a 6-1, 294-pound senior from Mountain Brook, had previously been named to watch lists for offensive linemen for the Outland Award and for offensive and defensive linemen and linebackers for the Lombardi Award.

Vlachos will have a tough enough time just being All-Southeastern Conference center. The SEC checks in with the most candidates, with seven players representing the conference. The Big Ten follows with six selections.

Other SEC centers named are A.J. Hawkins of Ole Miss, T.J. Johnson of South Carolina, P.J. Lonergan of LSU, Ben Jones of Georgia, Matt Smith of Kentucky, and Travis Swanson of Arkansas.

The winner will be honored at Rimington Trophy Presentation banquet at the Rococo Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska on January 14, 2012.

The Rimington Trophy is presented annually to the Most Outstanding Center in NCAA Division I-A College Football. Since its inception, the Rimington Trophy has raised over $2 million. The twelve-year old award is overseen by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and has raised over $86 million for CF Research.

Dave Rimington, the award's namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy's only double winner as the nation's finest college interior lineman.

Alabama has never had a Rimington Trophy winner.