The Davey O’Brien Foundation unveiled the preseason watch list for the 2022 Davey O’Brien Award on Monday, a group that includes 35 of the best quarterbacks in the country. Five from the Pac-12 made their way onto the list.

The preseason watch list was put together by a subset of the Davey O’Brien national selection committee and based on “career player performance and expectations heading into the 2022 college football season.” Only players who had previously started at least one game at the NCAA Division I level were eligible for the preseason watch list—presumably excluding Washington State’s Cameron Ward on a technicality, he’s on the preseason Maxwell Award watch list.

Here are the quarterbacks on the list from the Pac-12:

  • Tanner McKee, Stanford
  • Bo Nix, Oregon
  • Cameron Rising, Utah
  • Dorian Thompson-Robinson, UCLA
  • Caleb Williams, USC

The Pac-12 was tied with the ACC and the Big Ten for the second-most quarterback selections among the Power Five conferences. The SEC led the way with seven selections. The Big 12 had just two selections.

Williams was a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award, given annually to the nation’s best quarterback, last season when he was with Oklahoma. He returns to headline a Pac-12 quarterback class that figures to be pretty deep.

Ward could make his way onto the midseason watch list. So too could players like Jayden de Laura (Arizona) or Emory Jones (Florida).

That midseason watch list drops on Oct. 18 From there, the group will be pared down to a pool of 35 players to be announced on Oct. 25. Fan voting on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) will play a role in determining the semifinalists, finalists, and winner in conjunction with the national selection committee’s ballots. Voting opens on Oct. 25.

Sixteen semifinalists will be announced on Nov. 8. Three finalists will be unveiled two weeks later on Monday, Nov. 21. The winner will be announced live on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 8, during The Home Depot College Football Awards show. Alabama’s Bryce Young won the award last season. Oregon’s Marcus Mariota was the last Pac-12 player to claim the honor (2014). He and Troy Aikman (UCLA, 1988) are the only two winners to come from the Pac-12.