Topic: HERDZONE: Jasperse Named to Rimington Watch List

[biggreenarms]

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Marshall center Chris Jasperse, who will be a graduate student this fall, has been named to the preseason watch list for the Rimington Trophy, the Boomer Esiason Foundation announced Monday.

The Rimington Trophy is presented annually to the nation’s top collegiate football center.

Jasperse, who came to Marshall as a walk-on and has started all 39 games of his career, was one of 63 centers named to the list. From Conference USA, Braden Lyons (FAU) and Donald Senat (FIU) also were picked.

Jasperse, of Greensboro, N.C., played a team-leading 1,067 snaps in 2013 (14 games), grading out at 98 percent (assignment) and 86 percent (success). He led the Herd with 79 knockdowns, and allowed only one sack.

Marshall’s 7,005 yards last season -- in which was Jasperse played a major role as an all-conference first team selection by the league’s coaches -- was the best for a Herd team in major college football, and the third time a team has topped 7,000. The others were 7,287 in 1996 and 7,129 in 1992.

The Herd’s 500.4-yard average in 2013 trailed only the 2012 team (534.2), and a 516.0 yards-per-game average over the two-year span is the best in MU history.

Marshall finished with 2,883 rushing yards (205.9 per game), the first time as an FBS team the Herd has topped 200 per game and the best since the final Division I-AA team in 1996 averaged 226.3.

The Rimington Trophy is presented annually to the Most Outstanding Center in NCAA Division I-A College Football. Since its inception, the Rimington Trophy has raised over $2.5 million for the cystic fibrosis community. The 14-year-old award is overseen by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis, and has raised more than $100 million for CF Research.

Dave Rimington, the award's namesake, was a consensus All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the only double winner of the Outland Trophy as the nation's finest college interior lineman.


 

 

For more on the Rimington Trophy and a list of past recipients, visit www.rimingtontrophy.com.

http://www.herdzone.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/051914aaa.html