BOISE, Idaho – Boise State University football student-athlete Thomas Byrd was named to the 2011 Rimington Trophy Watch List, an award given annually to the nation’s top center.

Byrd, a rising redshirt senior from San Pablo, Calif., is a three-year starter at center for the Broncos. He was named first-team All-Western Athletic Conference this past season after starting each of the team’s 13 games, and was a key member of an offensive line that paved the way for the Broncos to rank second-nationally in total offense (321.08). Boise State also gave up the third-fewest sacks in the country in 2011 (0.62).

Byrd started each of Boise State’s 14 games as a sophomore in 2010, and the Broncos’ offensive line gave up just five sacks on the season – the fewest in the country.

He is one of four Rimington Trophy candidates from the Mountain West Conference, the third-most of any league nationally.

The Rimington Trophy is named after Dave Rimington, a consensus first-team All-America center at Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the Outland Trophy’s only double winner as the nation’s finest collegiate interior lineman. The 11-year-old award is overseen by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis.

The winner of the award will be selected by determining the consensus All-American center from four existing All-America Teams: the American Football Coaches’ Association, the Walter Camp Foundation, The Sporting News and the Football Writers Association of America.

--broncosports.com--