WKU’s Bailey Zappe landed on the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s Player of the Year Award “players to watch” list on Thursday, another notch on the gunslinger’s belt for the 2021 season.

The award is the fourth-oldest in college football history and is awarded to the best college football athlete in the nation. 130 FBS-level coaches and sports information directors vote for the final recipient of the honor.

Five finalists will be announced on Dec. 2, and the ultimate winner of the award is to be announced on ESPN’s College Football Awards Show on Dec. 9.  

Seven other quarterbacks join Zappe on the list, along with four defensive players, a pair of running backs and a wide receiver. Thirteen schools from six different conferences are represented, but Zappe and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ritter are the only players present from Group of Five conferences. 

Zappe continues to lead the nation in passing yards (3713) and touchdowns (37). Despite making the second-most pass attempts so far this year (446), his .697 completion percentage still puts him 14th in the country for accuracy.

Besides Zappe, the 14 other semifinalists are as follows:

Will Anderson, Alabama, LB

Matt Corral, Ole Miss, QB

Jordan Davis, Georgia, DL

Jahan Dotson, Penn State, WR

Sam Hartman, Wake Forest, QB

TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State, RB

Devin Lloyd, Utah, LB

Kenny Pickett, Pittsburgh, QB

Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati, QB

C.J. Stroud, Ohio State, QB

Kayvon Thibodeaux, DL, Oregon

Kenneth Walker III, Michigan State, RB

Caleb Williams, Oklahoma, QB

Bryce Young, Alabama, QB

Sports Editor Jake Moore can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Charles_JMoore.