Bortles joined Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater as members of the American Athletic Conference who had their names on the watch list.

The Maxwell Award, named in honor of Robert W. β€œTiny” Maxwell, has been given to America’s College Player of the Year since 1937. Semifinalists will be announced Oct. 29, while the three finalists will be unveiled Nov. 25. The winner of the 2013 Maxwell Award will be announced as part of the Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards Show held on Dec. 12.

In June, Bortles picked up a spot on the College Football Performance Awards Quarterback Trophy Watch List.

Guiding ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ to a 10-4 record and its second straight bowl victory, Bortles shined in his first year as a starter in 2012 as the Knights averaged 35.4 points per game, which was the fifth-highest mark in school history. The 496 points scored were just six shy of the all-time record, while ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ set the school mark with 61 offensive touchdowns.

For Bortles, he would be voted on to the All-Conference USA Second Team and serve as the Beef β€˜O’ Brady’s Bowl MVP. The first ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ quarterback to throw for at least 3,000 yards since 2002, Bortles finished the year 251-for-399 with 3,059 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He stands as the only Knights’ signal caller to have 10 games with at least two touchdown passes in a single season.

Bortles fell just shy of breaking Daunte Culpepper’s 1998 single-season ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ record (.0174) by having a .0175 interception-to-attempt ratio. Meanwhile, he enters 2013 with a school-record streak of 174 straight attempts without an interception.

On the ground, Bortles rushed for 285 yards and eight touchdowns. That was highlighted by 140 rushing yards in the final two games of the 2012 campaign.

Plan your game days this fall with the Knights and experience one of the best schedules in program history. Season tickets, starting at $99, guarantee both the South Carolina & USF match-ups.

And games are better in groups. Groups of twenty (20) or more are available for all home games at a 20% discounted price.

Miller joins a group of ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Knights who have appeared on the Sports Illustrated cover which includes quarterback Daunte Culpepper and women’s soccer great Michelle Akers.

A two-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, Miller was selected in the seventh round as a fullback by the 49ers in the 2011 NFL Draft. Miller ranks as ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½’s all-time sacks leader with 35.5 from 2007-10, and finished his first NFL regular season with 11 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown along with four carries for eight yards in 15 games with eight starts.

As the NFC’s No. 2 seed, San Francisco earned a bye before getting past New Orleans in dramatic fashion, 36-32, in the divisional playoffs. Miller earned the start and a 16-yard reception in the victory.

The 49ers will be hosting the Giants Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on FOX for the right to advance to Super Bowl XLVI.

Miller is not the only Knight looking to reach the Super Bowl. Selected in the third round by the Baltimore Ravens in last summer’s draft, offensive lineman Jah Reid appeared in all 16 regular-season games to help the Ravens grab the No. 2 seed in the AFC. He then saw time in Baltimore’s 20-13 win over the Houston Texans in the divisional playoffs.

Reid and the Ravens travel to New England to face the Patriots in the AFC Championship Sunday at 3 p.m. on CBS.

But because the speedy Godfrey is just 5-foot-11 and 182 pounds, the big boys viewed him as an “athlete.” They said they’d “try” him at quarterback, but would more likely move him to receiver or defensive back.

Their loss.

On a spring morning inside Nicholson Field House, the indoor practice facility at the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½, one could watch from the sideline as Godfrey zipped pass after pass in stride to a receiver. On some plays, he took the shotgun snap, scrambled away from pressure and turned a potential throwaway play into a positive gain. That quick release coupled with those quick feet are the primary reasons ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½’s rising sophomore star is poised to become the next Kellen Moore or Andy Dalton — a big-time quarterback who happens to play in a non-AQ conference.

“Some guys have those special qualities where you disregard the height, and Jeff has that,” said ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ offensive coordinator Charlie Taffe, formerly of Maryland and head coach of two CFL teams. “He’s got tremendous physical gifts, he’s football smart, he understands defense. He’s not just an athlete playing quarterback, he’s a quarterback that happens to be a special athlete.”

Godfrey, a former standout for prep power Miami Central, became one of the most high-profile signees of coach George O’Leary’s eight-year tenure when he joined the Conference USA school, and he wasted no time delivering on the hype. Taking over as starter four games into his freshman season, Godfrey finished 2010 as the nation’s 15th-ranked passer while leading the Knights to an 11-3 record, a conference title and a Liberty Bowl win over Georgia, the program’s first bowl victory.

For ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ fans, Godfrey brings to mind decorated dual-threat quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who played for the Knights in their infant days as a Division I-A program back in the late ’90s. For O’Leary, the more apt comparison is to another college standout from that period whom he happened to coach.

“[Godfrey] reminds me so much of Joe Hamilton,” the former Georgia Tech coach said. “They both had the knack for taking a bad play and making a good play out of it. How much can you coach that? That’s really instinctive. That’s what he has a great knack of.”

O’Leary’s tutorship of Hamilton, the 1999 Heisman runner-up who stood 5-10, was a major reason Godfrey found his way to Orlando after initially flirting with Florida State and South Florida. “I was like every other kid — who is ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½? What conference are they in?” said Godfrey.

That didn’t stop O’Leary from pursuing Godfrey.

“Everyone was telling him they wanted him, but he was going to be an athlete,” said O’Leary. “I said no, you’re going to be a quarterback at our place, and you’ll never move from quarterback until you walk into my office and tell me, ‘Coach, I’d be happier at another position.’ He hasn’t told me that yet.”

He has no reason to.

After graduating from high school a semester early to participate in spring practices at ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½, Godfrey started the 2010 season behind junior Rob Calabrese, but O’Leary gave the freshman playing time in the opener against South Dakota. After leading the Knights to two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 28-21 loss to N.C. State, Godfrey made his first start the next week at Buffalo and engineered a 15-play, 90-yard go-ahead touchdown drive that included several key scrambles and third-down conversions. The next week he struggled through the air (though ran for 99 yards) in a 17-13 loss at Kansas State.

And then he led the Knights to a 9-1 record the rest of the way, finishing with a 66.8 completion percentage, 2,159 passing yards, 566 rushing yards, 23 total touchdowns and eight interceptions.

“He definitely had some pretty big moments last year to help us win games,” said senior tight end Adam Nissley. “When he started getting comfortable and started realizing he had 10 other guys to help him out, he started to do some real impressive things and take control of the offense. It’s what we needed.”

Now he’s become the face O’Leary needed to sell his upstart program.

After a fall from grace when Notre Dame hired, then fired O’Leary in 2001 for stating false claims on his rΓ©sumΓ©, the rough-edged Long Island native has found redemption building a program that went 0-11 in his first season in ’04 into a competitive mid-major. The Knights have won two C-USA titles and played for another during O’Leary’s tenure and are currently vying for an invitation from the Big East. (A recent New York Times article alleging possible NCAA violations in ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½’s recruitment of several high-profile basketball players and one football player did not help the school’s cause.)

Since 2006, ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ has invested more than $200 million in facilities, including the 45,000-seat on-campus Bright House Networks Stadium, and an array of newly constructed dorms and shopping areas. The upgrades have helped attract a higher caliber of recruit.

“That’s when you start getting some depth in your program, you’re more athletic, you’re just trying to replace some positions rather than rebuild a whole bunch of them,” said O’Leary. “Now, every game on the schedule, we have an opportunity if we play well to win.”

But Godfrey gives ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ a more tangible identity than an indoor practice facility.

“Jeff is a special player,” Culpepper told the Orlando Sentinel after watching last year’s Homecoming game against Rice from the sideline. “… [He] has the ability to lead this program far beyond where it has ever been.”

Godfrey, whose father, Jeff Godfrey III, was also a standout Miami high school quarterback who drilled and coached his son since childhood, seems to belie his youth. He wasted no time taking control of the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ huddle as a freshman, and he’s certainly not lacking for confidence. Asked about the comparisons to Culpepper and Hamilton, the 19-year-old said, “They did a lot of good things, broke a lot of records. That’s what I’m trying to do, too.”

To this point, the sport’s “BCS busters” — Utah, Boise State, Hawaii and TCU — have all come from the Mountain West or WAC. With the Utes and Horned Frogs moving to major conferences and the Moore era in Boise set to end after this season, the door could be open for a new Cinderella, this time from the East.

ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½, which cracked the Top 25 last season for the first time in school history, brings back much of its offense this fall, including a trio of accomplished tailbacks (Latavius Murray, Brynn Harvey and Ronnie Weaver) and a veteran offensive line. The defense must replace several key players, including two-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year Bruce Miller, but O’Leary is confident heading into 2011. “We have a lot of pieces in place to be a very good football team,” he said.

The schedule, which includes Boston College and a trip to BYU, may be a bit too daunting for the Knights to entertain thoughts of a BCS bowl this season. But with Godfrey likely around for another three seasons, there’s no rush.

Source: SI.com, Inside College Football, Rising star Jeff Godfrey putting Central Florida on non-AQ map, by Stewart Mandel. Posted: Monday June 20, 2011 12:11PM ; Updated: Monday June 20, 2011 2:01PM

Pretty solid production overall for a freshman, no? Probably one of the best freshman seasons in ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ history, right?

Yes, it was one of the best: that was Daunte Culpepper’s freshman year at ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½.

Godfrey’s, meanwhile, was better across the board.

Here’s what Godfrey put up: 159-238, 2,159 passing yards, 15 TDs, 154.3 passing efficiency, 566 rushing yards, and 10 rushing TDs. Godfrey’s throwing motion needs work, but the arm strength is there; he’s surprisingly adept at the deep ball.

Then there’s the rushing.

Godfrey doesn’t have Denard Robinson’s level of speed, but he’s still darn fast–fast enough to be a nightmare for opposing secondaries when he’s scrambling.

Put it all together, and Godfrey — as a true freshman — was a more efficient passer than super-sophs Matt Barkley, Landry Jones, Robinson, Darron Thomas and even Godfrey’s closest prototype: Robert Griffin III.

Godfrey is already one of the brightest stars in Conference USA, and we have a feeling he’s nowhere near done collecting accolades. — AJ

Source: Excerpt from CBSSports.com, Eye on College Football.