St. Brown, Vaughns named to Biletnikoff Award Watch List
USC landed two wide receivers on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List in redshirt senior Tyler Vaughns and junior Amon-Ra St. Brown. The award is given to college football's outstanding FBS receiver and the watch list was released on Thursday.
St. Brown was USC's second-leading receiver in 2019, as he caught 77 passes for 1,042 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed seven times for 60 yards and a score. It was a very productive season for St. Brown, though all of USC's receivers were overshadowed a bit by the monster year put up by Michael Pittman--101 receptions, 1,275 yards and 11 touchdowns.
For his efforts, Pittman was a Biletnikoff Award finalist last season, as he looked to become USC's second winner, after Marqise Lee won the award in 2012.
St. Brown could easily step into the role as USC's No. 1 receiving option this season, but he'll have a challenge from Vaughns.
Last season, Vaughns finished just behind St. Brown with 72 receptions for 912 yards and six touchdowns. He has a real chance to set USC's career receptions mark this season--of course, this all is predicated on there actually being a season--if he can pull in 64 receptions to pass Robert Woods' USC record.
USC's receiving corps is so talented right now that it wouldn't have been a major stretch to include Drake London on the Watch List, as the talented receiver caught 39 passes for 567 yards and five touchdowns as a true freshman. And redshirt freshman Bru McCoy is ready to join the mix as well.
Wide receivers are guaranteed to put up big numbers in Graham Harrell's offense, so it wouldn't be surprising to see the Trojans pushing players for this award every season that Harrell is operating the offense. But LSU's Ja'Marr Chase will be the clear frontrunner, as he won the award last season as a true sophomore when he caught 84 passes for 1,780 yards and an SEC-record 20 touchdowns.
Other Pac-12 players named to the list include Max Borghi (Washington State), Frank Darby (Arizona State), Johnny Johnson III (Oregon) and Michael Wilson (Stanford).
