This post was updated at 11:35 a.m.
This past spring, redshirt senior wide receiver Shaquelle Evans made it clear he was after a spot in UCLA football’s history books as its single-season receiving yards record holder.
Three months later, it appears his expectations are being taken seriously, as the Inglewood native was named to the 2013 preseason Biletnikoff Award watch list Tuesday along with 74 of college football’s most highly touted wide receivers.
The award is handed out in December to the NCAA’s best wide receiver by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc. and was awarded to eventual Heisman Trophy finalist Marqise Lee of USC earlier this year.
In 2012, his first season catching passes from rising redshirt sophomore quarterback Brett Hundley, Evans hauled in a total of 60 receptions for three touchdowns a team-high 877 receiving yards – a performance that earned him an honorable mention All-Pac-12 distinction from the league’s coaches. It was a marked improvement over 2011, Evans’ first active season at UCLA following his decision to transfer from Notre Dame, in which the then-redshirt sophomore had only 19 receptions for 309 yards and two touchdowns.
Among those selected to Biletnikoff Award’s preseason watch list include defending recipient and rising junior Marqise Lee – also a frontrunner for this season’s Heisman Trophy – along with Oregon’s Josh Huff and Oregon State’s Brandin Cooks, among others.
Tuesday’s preseason announcement comes just a day after several other Bruins were named to preseason award watch lists. Rising senior outside linebacker Anthony Barr, fresh off his first season as a defensive player, and rising junior offensive guard Xavier Su’a-Filo were both named to the preseason watch list for the Rotary Lombardi Award. The Lombardi Award is given annually to college football’s most outstanding down lineman, offensive or defensive, that “sets up no farther than 10 yards to the left or right of the ball” or linebackers, including Barr, who “set up no farther than 5 yards deep from the line of scrimmage.”
Barr also received a preseason nod for the Butkus Award, which distinguishes college football’s best linebacker. He was joined on the list by UCLA inside linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Zumwalt, a rising junior and senior, respectively.
The two watch lists barely scratch the surface for Barr. He was also listed as a preseason candidate for the Maxwell Award, given to America’s College Player of the Year, last week along with Hundley, as well the Bednarik Award, awarded to college football’s Defensive Player of the Year, alongside Kendricks.
On Wednesday, Hundley was announced as one of 34 quarterbacks on the watch list for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award, won by Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel in 2012. Hundley looks to becomes UCLA’s first quarterback to win the award since quarterback Troy Aikman took home the hardware in 1988.
The 2013 Biletnikoff, Maxwell, O’Brien and Bednarik Award winners will all be announced during the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on December 12, while the Lombardi Award will be handed out on Dec. 11 in Houston.
Compiled by Andrew Erickson, Bruin Sports senior staff.