Florida is starting to stack up preseason hardware, and running back Jadan Baugh and wide receiver Vernell Brown III are right in the middle of it.
Baugh and Brown were both named Monday, Aug. 10, to the Paul Hornung Award watch list, which goes to the most versatile player in major college football. The Louisville Sports Commission has handed out the award since 2010, and the name behind it still says everything about the honor: Hornung won the 1956 Heisman Trophy at quarterback for Notre Dame, went No. 1 in the 1957 NFL draft, and spent his career doing just about everything - playing every spot in the backfield, punting, kicking, returning kicks and lining up at defensive back.
Baugh’s case is built on a monster 2025 season. He started all 12 games, ran for 1,170 yards and eight touchdowns, and added 21 catches for 185 yards and two scores through the air. His 10 total touchdowns led Florida last season.
Brown’s profile is different, but just as eye-catching. Entering the 2026 season, he’s coming off a year in which he led the Gators with 40 receptions for 512 yards and became the first true freshman in program history to top the team in both catches and receiving yards.
He also handled most of Florida’s punt and kick return duties for much of the season, finishing with 261 return yards on 18 kick and punt returns. Brown was one of only two freshmen and one of 18 FBS players to post five punt returns of at least 20 yards, and his work earned him Freshman All-SEC honors at wide receiver, all-purpose and return specialist.
Baugh showed up on another national watch list as well. He was named to the Maxwell Award preseason list, one of 81 players in the mix for college football’s most outstanding player. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the award in 2025.
The 6-foot-1, 228-pound Baugh is being watched as a possible SEC rushing leader after finishing third in the league last season with those 1,170 yards and eight touchdowns. He also had the big finish that stuck out even more: 266 rushing yards against Florida State in UF’s 2025 season finale.
That was the second-most in a game in program history, trailing only Emmitt Smith’s 316-yard, three-touchdown day against New Mexico on Oct. 21, 1989.
Baugh became the 10th Florida running back to reach 1,000 rushing yards in a season, and the first since Kelvin Taylor in 2015.
Florida also got a watch-list nod up front. Junior center Harrison Moore was named to the Rimington Trophy watch list, which goes to college football’s top center. Moore transferred from Georgia Tech, where the 6-foot-4, 293-pound lineman appeared in 11 games and made eight starts in 2025 while helping a line that gave up just nine sacks, or 0.69 per game.
He’s stepping into a major job in Gainesville, projected to replace Jake Slaughter. Slaughter was a two-time All-American and a two-time Rimington Award finalist in 2024 and 2025 before the Los Angeles Chargers took him in the second round of the 2026 NFL draft.
Kicker Patrick Durkin rounded out Florida’s presence on the preseason award circuit by landing on the Lou Groza Award watch list. The award honors college football’s top kicker, and Durkin arrives from Tulane after making 25 of 28 field goals last season, good for 89.3%, along with 41 of 42 extra points.
That field-goal mark ranked second among returning FBS kickers who made at least 20 field goals, and his 25 makes were tied for second-most among returning FBS kickers. Durkin showed his leg in Florida’s spring game at The Swamp in April, drilling three field goals but missing a 49-yard attempt as time expired.
“He’s just getting comfortable and had a great season last year,” Florida special teams coach Johnathan Galante said. “He transitions now to a whole new town, a whole new city, a whole new environment, higher level.
And he did well. He finished better than he started spring ball and in the position he’s in right now, I’m very excited where he’s at.”
The Groza Award will name 20 semifinalists on Nov. 17, then trim that group to three finalists on Nov. 24.
The winner will be announced Dec. 10 during the Home Depot College Football Awards on ESPN. The Maxwell Award follows the same late-season cadence, with semifinalists due Nov. 10, finalists on Nov. 24 and the winner announced Dec. 10 on the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show.
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