Nov. 9, 2012
EVANSTON, Ill. -- A pair of Northwestern football players were selected this week as semifinalists for top national honors at their respective positions. Junior running back Venric Mark (Tomball, Texas/St. Pius X) is one of 10 semifinalists for the prestigious Doak Walker Award, while junior Jeff Budzien (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) is among the 20 national candidates for the Lou Groza Award, presented annually to the top place-kicker in FBS.
The winners of both awards are slated to be announced during the Home Depot ESPN College Football Awards Show on Thursday, Dec. 6.
In his first year as Northwestern's starting running back, Mark needed only nine games to post the first 15th 1,000-yard rushing season in NU history and the first since 2006. The junior is second in the Big Ten and 10th in the country with 119.7 rushing yards per game, and leads the conference in all-purpose yards per game with 184.1. He has 14 total touchdowns this season (11 rushing) and is averaging a stellar 6.5 yards on his 166 rushing attempts.
Mark joins Wisconsin's Montee Ball and Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell as the Big Ten's trio of representatives on the Doak Walker Award's list of semifinalists. Three finalists will be announced on Monday, Nov. 19, before the winner is announced Dec. 6.
Budzien is 11-of-12 on field goal attempts this year -- with his lone miss coming on a 53-yard try -- and a perfect 34-of-34 on extra point tries, extending his school record for consecutive made PATs to 84. Three of his field goals have come from beyond 40 yards and earlier this year Budzien tied a Northwestern school record when he converted all five of his field goal tries against Boston College.
The Big Ten also landed three place-kickers in the field of Lou Groza Award semifinalists, with Budzien joining Michigan's Brendan Gibbons and Iowa's Mike Meyer.
2012 Doak Walker Award Semifinalists
Montee Ball, Wisconsin
Kenjon Barner, Oregon
Le'Veon Bell, Michigan State
Giovani Bernard, North Carolina
David Fluellen, Toledo
Johnathan Franklin, UCLA
Stefphon Jefferson, Nevada
Venric Mark, Northwestern
Joseph Randle, Oklahoma State
Stepfan Taylor, Stanford
Lou Groza Award Semifinalists
Brett Baer, Louisiana
Casey Barth, North Carolina
Chris Boswell, Rice
Jeff Budzien, Northwestern
Anthony Cantele, Kansas State
Chandler Cantanzaro, Clemson
Brian Davis, Arkansas State
Trey Farquhar, Idaho
Brendan Gibbons, Michigan
Dustin Hopkins, Florida State
Michael Hunnicutt, Oklahoma
Austin Lopez, San Jose State
Ross Martin, Duke
Mike Meyer, Iowa
Jaden Oberkrom, TCU
Cairo Santos, Tulane
Steven Schott, Ball State
Quinn Sharp, Oklahoma State
Jeremy Shelley, Alabama
Caleb Sturgis, Florida
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