Dec 17 2008
Mack wins another award
For the second year in a row, California center Alex Mack has won the Morris Trophy for being the best offensive lineman in the Pac-10. With all of the awards and recognition he’s getting this offseason, he’s going to have to buy a big trophy case with his first NFL paycheck.
The Morris trophy is one of the better awards for those that get angry about the politics that normally come into play. From the Cal Bears website, “The Morris Trophy, established in 1980, is a unique award given to the outstanding offensive and defensive linemen in the Pac-10, with the starting offensive linemen in the conference voting for the defensive winner and vice versa. It is truly a players’ award.“
That’s good for Mack. He has already been snubbed by the AP, Rimington Award, and others with many of the Bear Backers accusing ‘East Coast Bias’. They have a point also. When the season began, he was a first-team All-American pick and thought to be the best lineman in all of college football. Now, he’s being overlooked for Big Ten center A.Q. Shipley (Penn State) and SEC center Antoine Caldwell (Alabama). Both play east of the Mississippi.
Mack is the third Golden Bear to win the Morris Trophy. The other two were Todd Steussie and Ryan O’Callaghan, both NFL pro’s. He’s also only the third player to receive the award twice, following in the footsteps of USC’s Roy Foster (’80-’81) and Washington’s Lincoln Kennedy (’91-’92).
Mack has already won the Draddy Trophy, giving him the name of Mack-Draddy, which is also called the ‘Academic Heisman’. He was also named to the Pac-10 first-team for the third time, the Pac-10 All-Academic first-team for the second time, first-team All-American by Rivals, second-team All-American by The Sporting News and Walter Camp, and third-team by AP. He was a finalist for the Remington Award and the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, and a semifinalist for the Rotary Lombardi Award.
Only time will tell if Mack should have done better on the awards circuit, but until then he should find somewhere to store all of the honors.
Cal has signed more recruits recently for their 2009 football class. We have detailed information on each recruit over at the Cal Bears Examiner . Come on by and take a look.
