It's officially college football awards SZN and instead of asking Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts the same boring questions about LSU or Oregon offensive lineman Penei Sewell what it's like protecting the hands and hair of Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert, we decided to learn more about the men behind the facemasks. TSFJ asked several players in Atlanta for the College Football Awards the hard-hitting questions — which teammate has the fire social media content, which coach would most likely be on TikTok and who would throw the most epic birthday party.
Check it out and get to know some of this year's funniest finalists:
Lou Graza Award finalist (Best kicker): Blake Mazza, Washington State
Twitter or Instagram: Instagram, 100%. I think Twitter is reading a lot of posts, which I find interesting but I think photos capture the moment and describe it all. I like edits, I’m not going to lie. I think editing photos is really cool.
Favorite Follow: It honestly may be my longsnapper Tyler Williams. And there’s a reason. A couple months ago he had this meme page, it was a private account. And it was only followed by our team and it was not open to the public or anything. It was the funniest thing ever and everyone loved it. He’s a funny guy, not a lot of people know that.
Who would you let throw your birthday party: I think I’m going to give it to our punter, Oscar Draguicevich. He’s from Texas too and we are pretty similar just with the food we like and stuff we do.
Coach most likely to be TikTok famous: I’m going to go Eric Mele, our running backs coach because he’s a character. We’ve got a nine-foot tall Sasquatch statue that goes around the coach’s office and Mele loves to put it in random corners of the building. So you will turn a corner and this nine-foot Sasquatch will be looking at you and you see him in the back just laughing and you know it was him. He actually could have a TikTok…
Player everyone goes to for love/dating/relationship advice: I think personally I give some good advice. I’m in the longest relationship on the team, coming up on five years with my girlfriend. Met her in middle school and persuaded her ever since to keep dating me. She’s actually in Texas so we are long distance. She’s an awesome girl. So, yeah a lot of guys come to me. If I need advice, I go to our backup quarterback this year Trey Tinsley. He is a great guy, one of my good friends. He’s been in a long-distance relationship too. He's got a good head on his shoulders.
Person you would want to present the award to you: I’m going to go with my dad. Growing up we have had a really close relationship. In second grade he’s the one who started waking me up at 6 am to go run the hills before school started at 7:45. I think we’ve just grown close over the years. He’s seen me through my rough patches in life, outside of football and on the field, he’s seen me in my highest points on and off the field. He’s just someone I’ve always looked up to. It would probably bring me to tears to have him bring me the award, not going to lie. It would be an awesome moment.
Biletnikoff Award finalist (Best wide receiver): Michael Pittman, USC
Twitter or Instagram: I would rather post on Instagram but Twitter is more entertaining and has more useful news on it.
Favorite Follow: Cornerback Olaijah Griffin, he puts out some good content. His dancing videos and the other videos he posts are funny and he’s just a lively personality guy.
Coach most likely to be TikTok famous: Inside linebackers coach/defensive run game coordinator Johnny Nansen and offensive quality control analyst Seth Deoge because (Deoge) is super young. And Coach Nansen is just a funny guy and he always makes these funny videos – so one of those two.
Who would you let throw your birthday party: Wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. He’s probably the funniest guy we have on the team and just his personality. He’s just a great dude. He’s the life of the party type guy – he can really throw a party.
Player everyone goes to for love/dating/relationship advice: Usually they come to me because I have had the same girlfriend for almost seven years, so they usually come to me. But if I were to ask somebody, I would probably ask offensive tackle Liam Jimmons because he is the next guy on the team who has had a girlfriend for a long time. He’s actually my roommate too.
Person you would want to present the award to you: If possible I would have my whole family up there, my mom, my dad and my step dad – I would like to have them up there with me.
Outland Trophy Finalist (Best offensive lineman): Penei Sewell
Twitter or Instagram: Instagram, I like the pictures.
Favorite Follow: Wide receiver Juwan Johnson – go on his page, he’s unique he mixes everything with it, cartoons and football. He keeps it interesting.
Coach most likely to be TikTok famous: That’s gotta be associate head coach Joe Salave’a – although he’s big I feel like he would be on TikTok, doing all that.
Who would you let throw your birthday party: Safety Jevon Holland or defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux – one of those two.
Player everyone goes to for love/dating/relationship advice: My man, running back C.J. Verdell. Him and inside linebacker Sampson Niu are my roommates so we chill a lot.
Person you would want to present the award to you: All the greats, line up shake hands with all of them, I would love that.
Doak Walker Award finalist (Best running back): Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
Twitter or Instagram: Twitter. You see a lot of funny videos on Twitter. You see a lot of videos on Instagram too but Twitter will have you laughing for a while.
Favorite Follow: I would probably have to say safety Eric Burrell. He usually puts his outfits for each game and they are pretty clean.
Who would you let throw your birthday party: Inside linebacker Chris Orr because he’s a leader but he knows everybody on the team so I’m sure he would definitely come up with a birthday party that is especially specific and great for me.
Player everyone goes to for love/dating/relationship advice: My roommate safety Madison Cone – he’s real good about that stuff and I feel like he’s the guy for the job.
Person you would want to present the award to you: Would have to be Bo Jackson, gotta be. That’s the dude right there.
Lou Groza Award finalist: Keith Duncan, Iowa
Twitter or Instagram: Instagram, because there’s pictures.
Favorite Follow: Offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs. There's a picture of me and Wirfs hugging and there is a meme going around asking who is the best “little-big” duo so that’s why.
Coach most likely to be TikTok famous: My special teams coach LeVar Woods because he has a good sense of humor and he also has kids that love TikTok.
Who would you let throw your birthday party: Wirfs
Player everyone goes to for love/dating/relationship advice: Linebacker Nick Niemann, he’s my roommate.
Outland Trophy finalist: Tyler Biadasz, Wisconsin
Twitter or Instagram: Probably Instagram – I feel like I’m more on Instagram now than Twitter but I feel like Twitter will eventually take over.
Favorite Follow: I think in general inside linebacker Chris Orr always has something good on there – every week he has something pretty good on Instagram.
Coach most likely to be TikTok famous: Tight ends coach Mickey Turner.
Who would you let throw your birthday party: Offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen. We just celebrate so many events – he knows me pretty well and we just love to celebrate, after games, a Tuesday, I don’t know…
Player everyone goes to for love/dating/relationship advice: So running back Garrett Groshek, I grew up with him, went to high school together, we've been friends since we were in Kindergarten. If I needed a straight answer, with no emotion I always went to Garrett. But if I wanted an answer with more details, I would go to his girlfriend, who is now his fiancé. They make a good team - they shoot me straight and the definitely know me. Cole Van Lanen and linebacker Mikey Maskalunas - all those guys have been there for me through whatever I'm going through. They all have my back.
Person you would want to present the award to you: I would want my mom and dad and my brother - I mean they have been there, they've helped me along the way. Football aside, they have helped me grow as a person, helped me make hard decisions, take me to events. It wasn't easy for them to go everywhere for all my sports. So just to thank them and let them know I appreciate it - it was all worth it. My dad would be the most likely to tear up while presenting to me, 100 percent. He didn't play sports growing up, so for him to live throw me in that respect it's pretty cool.
