Adam Bisnowaty named to Rotary Lombardi Award watch list

Offensive tackle Adam Bisnowaty joined Pitt's growing list of players on watch lists for the 2015 college football season. This week, the lineman was named to the Rotary Lombardi Award watch list. The award is given to the nation's top lineman or linebacker.

The Panthers do have some history with the award. Aaron Donald, you might recall, won the award back in 2013, and Hugh Green won it in 1980.

More specifically, the award's site has some additional criteria for winning the award. It is limited to down linemen from end to end, playing either offense or defense. Said linemen cannot set up more than 10 yards from the ball and linebackers within five yards of the line of scrimmage are eligible as well.

Yeah, not the easiest thing in the world to keep in mind.

As such, Bisnowaty will have face a sizable challenge in trying to compete for the award, let alone win it. The biggest reason is that it almost always goes to a defensive player. Orlando Pace was the last offensive lineman to win it and that was about 20 years ago back in 1996. Since then, defensive linemen and linebackers have been the only winners.

Obviously a reason for that is that it's far easier to measure the defensive guys since they have common statistics such as tackles and sacks. Measuring an offensive lineman is much more difficult unless you're routinely watching the player.

We'll see if Bisnowaty is able to distinguish himself enough to garner any consideration for it.

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