Heisman frontrunner Marcus Mariota of Oregon heads the list of 16 semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, given annually to the nation's top quarterback.
Florida State's Jameis Winston, the 2013 winner, also is a semifinalist.
The Big 12 and SEC each have four semifinalists. TCU's Trevone Boykin, Baylor's Bryce Petty, West Virginia's Clint Trickett and Kansas State's Jake Waters are from the Big 12, while Auburn's Nick Marshall, Mississippi State's Dak Prescott, Alabama's Blake Sims and Mississippi's Bo Wallace are from the SEC.
UCLA's Brett Hundley joins Mariota as a semifinalist from the Pac-12. The Big Ten also has two semifinalists in Ohio State's J.T. Barrett and Michigan State's Connor Cook. East Carolina's Shane Carden, Marshall's Rakeem Cato and Notre Dame's Everett Golson are the other semifinalists.
There are no glaring omissions, though California's Jared Goff and USC's Cody Kessler also would have made for worthy semifinalists.
Four of the semifinalists will play against each other this weekend: Barrett and Ohio State are playing against Cook and Michigan State, and Boykin and TCU are playing host to Waters and K-State.
Hundley, Mariota, Petty and Winston were semifinalists last season, and Mariota also was a semifinalist in 2012.
Three finalists will be announced Nov. 24, with the announcement of the winner coming Dec. 11.
Other previous winners include BYU's Steve Young in 1983, UCLA's Troy Aikman in 1988, Texas' Vince Young in 2005, Florida's Tim Tebow in 2007, Auburn's Cam Newton in 2010 and Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel in 2012. The last senior to win the award was Texas' Case McCoy in 2009.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
