Sports Page Atlanta

Three Georgia Bulldogs make the initial Nagurski Award list. The Bronko Nagurski Award is given to the best defensive player in college football.

The three hopefuls are defensive tackles Geno Atkins, Jeffrey Owens and linebacker Dannell Ellerbe. Atkins was 2nd on Georgia last season in sacks and quarterback hurries. Owens had 27 tackles including 4 for loss. Ellerbe led the Dawgs in tackles last season with 93.

The award has been presented every year since 1993. Last year the winner was LSU’s Glenn Dorsey. The award will be presented on December 7th.

The people at College Football News have made their list of their top 250 2009 possible NFL draft picks. Of course they are not predicting who goes where because it mostly depends which teams got slotted where, and they realize just because you are eligible it doesn’t mean you will enter the draft, but overall they do a very good job. They break it down by rounds and by positions.

Among the local players in the top-50 are Georgia Bulldog running back Knowshon Moreno ranked 8th, quarterback Matthew Stafford ranked 13th and at #44 is defensive tackle Jeffrey Owens. For the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets they have defensive end Michael Johnson ranked #11th and defensive tackle Vance Walker at number 21. More Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets are mentioned later on.

Check out the complete projected 2009 NFL Draft list.

Two Georgia players and one Georgia Tech players made the initial list for the 2008 Lott Trophy Award. The Lott Trophy, named after Ronnie Lott is given to the college football’s best defensive player in the nation. It also represents players who give the best IMPACT (Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.)

There are only 42 student-athletes on the list including:

Georgia

• CB - Asher Allen
• DT - Jeffrey Owens

Georgia Tech

• DT - Darryl Richard

Richard is one of only seven players on the overall list that were on the list last year.

Georgia’s David Pollack was the first winner of this prestigious award back in 2004.

The winner will be announced on December 14th later this year.