The Reese's Senior Bowl added some serious firepower to its roster on Tuesday, including quarterbacks Cody Kessler of USC and Dak Prescott of Mississippi State, and Baylor pass rusher Shawn Oakman, among 11 roster additions.
The additions of Kessler, Prescott and Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan bring the total number of quarterbacks that have accepted invites to the annual all-star game to six, but the game will expand to include eight QBs in 2016, rather than the usual six, Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage revealed on Tuesday. Other quarterbacks already committed include North Dakota State's Carson Wentz, North Carolina State's Jacoby Brissett and Louisiana Tech's Jeff Driskel.
Other Monday additions: Alabama RB Kenyan Drake, Auburn CB Jonathan Jones, Notre Dame DL Sheldon Day, Michigan State C Jack Allen, Penn State DE Carl Nassib, Oklahoma State CB Kevin Peterson and USC FB Soma Vainuku.
Prescott was named first-team All-SEC this season, holds 38 school records and was a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Kessler entered the season as a fringe Heisman Trophy candidate, but a four-loss regular season for the Trojans made that goal all but impossible. Still, the three-year starter finished his career with 10,118 passing yards and a TD-INT ratio of 87-18. Oakman (6-9, 275) was ranked by NFL Media's Lance Zierlein as college football's No. 3 pass rusher before the season began. Nassib and Allen were named first-team All-Big Ten this year.
Rosters consist of two 55-man squads, North and South, and 93 spots have been filled about a month before the practice week begins. NFL coaches, scouts and personnel executives get an opportunity to evaluate the top college seniors at the event, through practice observation, personal interviews, physical measurements and more. Last week, the Senior Bowl announced that a new financial education program to benefit the players has been added to the week's schedule.
The Senior Bowl will be played on Jan. 30 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., and broadcast on NFL Network. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. ET.
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