UCLA Football Receiver Jake Bobo Makes Biletnikoff Award Watch List
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For the first time in the Chip Kelly era, the Bruins boast one of the top wideouts in the country heading into the season.
UCLA football's Jake Bobo was included on the 2022 Fred Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list on Thursday, with the honor going out to the nation's best receiver each year. Bobo transferred to Westwood from Duke, where he spent four seasons growing into the team's No. 1 pass-catching option.
Now, Bobo will be hauling in passes from quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson in blue and gold, contending for his position's top honor with 43 others.
Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet both made the Maxwell Award watch list on Monday, then made the Davey O'Brien Award watch list on Tuesday and Doak Walker Award watch list on Wednesday, respectively.
The last time a UCLA receiver was on the Biletnikoff watch list was all the way back in 2017, when Darren Andrews, Jordan Lasley and Caleb Wilson all earned the distinction. All three were added midseason, though – the last time a UCLA receiver was on the preseason edition was when Jordan Payton made it in 2015.
Coming out of high school, Bobo was a three-star recruit, according to the 247Sports Composite. Bobo fielded 10 Division I offers at the time as a consensus top-six player in Massachusetts and top-200 receiver in the country.
In four years with Duke, Bobo hauled in 126 catches for 1,448 yards and three touchdowns. Bobo had a career year as a senior in 2021, ranking in the top 10 in the ACC with 801 yards and 74 receptions.
Bobo made the All-ACC Third Team last fall and racked up several academic honors during his time at Duke. Bobo comes from a long line of athletes as well, with his parents, grandparents and aunts playing football, hockey, lacrosse and field hockey at Dartmouth, SMU, New Hampshire, Harvard, Middlebury, William Smith College and Virginia over the past few decades.
USC's Jordan Addison and Arizona's Jacob Cowing are the other Pac-12 representatives on the watch list. Addison won the award in 2021.
No Bruin has ever won the Biletnikoff Award.
The winner of the Biletnikoff Award will be announced on ESPN in December as part of the annual College Football Awards Show.
Each weekday for the next two weeks, the National College Football Awards Association will announce the watch lists for the rest of its positional awards. The John Mackey Award watch list – which honors the top wide receivers in the country – and the Rimington Trophy watch list – which honors the top centers in the country – will be released Friday.
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