7/31/2023 football Edit

FSU QB Jordan Travis, RB Trey Benson named to Maxwell Award watch list

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis and running back Trey Benson are both on the Maxwell Award Watch List, it was announced Monday. Florida State is the only school in the state of Florida and one of two ACC schools with multiple players on this year’s watch list.

Travis enters the 2023 season as a Heisman Trophy candidate after a stellar 2022 campaign in which he led Florida State to its first 10-win season since 2016 and a Cheez-It Bowl victory over Oklahoma. Travis finished the 2022 season 226-of-353 passing for 3,214 yards with 24 touchdowns and only five interceptions while adding 417 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground as well as one receiving touchdown. He was PFF’s highest-graded FBS quarterback and the highest-graded offensive player in the ACC. He is the only player in program history with at least 20 touchdown passes and seven rushing touchdowns in a season, and his 32 touchdowns responsible for rank as the third-highest single-season total in program history. The West Palm Beach native became only the fourth player in FSU history – joining Heisman Trophy winners Jameis Winston, Chris Weinke and Charlie Ward – with at least 3,000 total yards and 30 total touchdowns in a season. His 3,631 yards of total offense ranked fifth on FSU’s single-season list, while his passing yards total was seventh, his passing touchdowns were tied for 10th and his completions were 14th.

Travis led the ACC and ranked third nationally with his average of 8.35 yards per play, ranked first in the conference and fifth in the country with an average of 9.10 yards per pass attempt, led the ACC and ranked eighth nationally with an average of 14.22 yards per completion and led the ACC and was 14th in the country with a pass efficiency rating of 160.1. His average of 247.2 passing yards per game, 24 total passing touchdowns and 64.0 completion percentage all ranked third in the ACC, while his 194 points responsible for and average of 279.3 yards of total offense per game were fourth in the conference.

Benson burst onto the scene in his first season at FSU in 2022, rushing for 990 yards and nine touchdowns while adding 144 yards on 13 receptions and 192 yards with one touchdown on five kickoff returns. The second-team All-ACC performer earned ACC Running Back of the Week four different times and became the first player in conference history to win the award outright in three consecutive weeks. He re-set his career-high rushing total in each of those three weeks, becoming the first FSU rusher since Dalvin Cook in 2016 with three straight 100-yard games. His final game in that stretch was a 163-yard performance at Syracuse that was the most rushing yards by an ACC player in a road game in 2022 and the highest for an FSU rusher in an ACC road game since Cook at Syracuse in 2016. Benson finished the year with five 100-yard rushing games, the most in a season by an FSU runner since Cam Akers in 2019.

Benson’s average of 6.46 yards per rush led the ACC and ranked 13th nationally, and he was second in the ACC and ninth in the country with 14 runs of at least 20 yards. The Greenville, Mississippi, native broke PFF College’s single-season record by forcing 0.51 missed tackles per rush to better the previous record of 0.48. Benson’s nine rushing touchdowns ranked sixth in the conference, and his 10 total touchdowns were 10th. In FSU’s 44-14 win over Boston College, Benson totaled a career-high 177 all-purpose yards and became the first player in program history to score two offensive touchdowns and a kickoff return touchdown in the same game. His kickoff return touchdown was the first opening kickoff return for a touchdown in Doak Campbell Stadium history.

The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the outstanding player in college football and has been awarded since 1937. This year’s semifinalists will be announced November 13, with three finalists revealed November 28 and the winner being announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show on December 7.