KNOXVILLE -- University of Tennessee junior wide receivers Justin Hunter and Da’Rick Rogers were each named to the 2012 Biletnikoff Award Preseason Watch List released Tuesday.
The Biletnikoff Award annually recognizes the outstanding receiver in college football and is selected by a national selection committee consisting of more than 180 prominent football journalists, commentators, and receivers.
The 2012 winner will be presented live on The Home Depot College Football Awards Show, televised by ESPN on Dec. 6, 2012.
Hunter, from Virginia Beach, Va., caught 17 passes for 314 yards and two touchdowns before suffering a torn ACL in the Florida game that ended his 2011 season. He averaged 151 yards receiving in his first two games of last season, and his combined 302 yards receiving against Montana and Cincinnati were the most by a UT receiver in a season’s first two games in school history. In 15 career games, Hunter has 32 receptions for 717 yards receiving and nine touchdowns.
Rogers, from Calhoun, Ga., was a first team AP All-SEC team and a second team selection on the All-SEC Coaches team in 2011 after leading the conference with 1,040 yards receiving and finishing second in the league with both 67 receptions and nine receiving touchdowns. He was the sixth Vol to post a 1,000-yard receiving season and his yards and receptions totals from a year ago ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, in Tennessee history. In 25 career games at UT, including 12 starts, Rogers has caught 78 passes for 1,207 yards and 11 touchdowns.
No Tennessee player has won the Biletnikoff Award, while three Vols have earned semifinalist distinction, including Joey Kent (1996), Kelley Washington (2001), and Robert Meachem (2006).
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)