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UCLA Football: Scott Quessenberry named to Outland Award watch list

By Michael Chavez

TEMPE, AZ - OCTOBER 08: Quarterback Mike Fafaul
TEMPE, AZ - OCTOBER 08: Quarterback Mike Fafaul /
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UCLA Football offensive center Scott Quessenberry has been named to the Outland Trophy Award watchlist for the 2017 season.

The hits just keep rolling for the UCLA Football team as current starter at center Scott Quessenberry was named to the watchlist for the Outland Trophy on Thursday.

The award is “Presented to the nation’s most outstanding interior lineman by the Football Writers Association of America” according to the Outland Award site. The award has gone to many offensive linemen but isn’t reserved just for the OL.

In 2016 former Alabama OT Cam Robinson won the award before being selected in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Other past winners have been Stanford’s Joshua Garnett, Iowa OL Brandon Scherff and Pittsburgh DT Aaron Donald.

Related Story: UCLA Football: Austin Roberts named to Mackey Award watch list

The last time a UCLA Football player won the award was in 1998 when Kris Farris earned it and before that in 1995 when Johnathan Ogden took it home.

After missing the 2015 season recovering from surgery, Quessenberry took hold of the starting center position and became the line caller for this unit. Despite the offensive line not performing up to par, Quessenberry was named to the All-PAC-12 First team for his play in 2016.

Now in his second season as the starting center, Quessenberry will have to improve not only his play but help elevate the play of his line as a whole. He will be under the direction of new OL coach Hank Fraley who comes over as the former assistant OL coach of the Minnesota Vikings.

The Bruins gave up 24 sacks in 2016 averaging two sacks a game. Those numbers will have to improve in a big way especially since the Bruins lost QB Josh Rosen to injury after six games and before that he was taking a beating behind this line.

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I haven’t been the biggest supporter behind Quessenberry but I would gladly eat crow should he rise to the occasion and help secure this line giving this UCLA Football team much needed balance. Congratulations to Scott Quessenberry on being named to this award watchlist and hopefully he can prove this arm chair QB wrong.