2009 Michigan Wolverines Football Team - Preseason Award Watch Lists

Preseason Award Watch Lists

Several players excelled individually. The season began with numerous Wolverines on national award preseason watchlists. Brandon Graham led the way with five such recognitions for the Bednarik Award, Hendricks Award, Lombardi Award, Lott Trophy and Bronko Nagurski Trophy. David Molk was on both the Lombardi and Rimington Trophy preseason lists, while Brandon Minor was on both the Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award lists. Obi Ezeh, Zoltan Mesko, and Stephen Schilling were preseason Butkus Award, Ray Guy Award and Lombardi candidates, respectively. As the season started, Michigan burst out with a 4–0 start and saw several players recognized as Big Ten Conference player of the week early in the season: Tate Forcier, Carlos Brown and Mesko. Also, several players earned midseason or finalist watchlist recognitions: Ezeh (Butkus), Mesko (Guy) and Graham (Hendrick).

During week 2, Tate Forcier (Offense) and Darryl Stonum (Special teams) were honored by the Big Ten Conference as players of the week (POW). At the same time, Forcier was also named AT&T All-America Player of the Week, as well as the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week Award and Rivals.com National Freshmen of the Week and the Rivals.com Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honor. The following week, Carlos Brown earned co-offensive POW honors along with Northwestern's Mike Kafka. Zoltan Mesko was named the special teams player of the week on October 11. The only statistical leader for the team was Mesko who in eight conference games averaged 45.2 yards/punt, which was the first time a Michigan punter led the Big Ten in Conference game punting average since Paul Staroba in 1970. Brandon Graham and Mesko were first-team All-Big Ten selections by both the coaches and the media. Donovan Warren was first-team by the media and second-team by the coaches and Stephen Schilling was an honorable mention on both lists.

Ezeh was one of sixteen players and three from the Big Ten for the Butkus midseason watch list. Mesko was named a one of 10 semifinalists for the Ray Guy Award and one of 12 finalists for the Wuerffel Trophy. Graham was one of seven finalists for the Hendricks Award.