Tulane’s Michael Pratt earns place on Walter Camp 2023 Player of the Year Preseason Watch List

Tulane junior quarterback Michael Pratt earned a place on the Walter Camp 2023 Player of the Year Preseason Watch List, the Walter Camp Football Foundation announced on Friday.

“We are proud to continue the great work of Walter Camp and recognize the best college football players in the nation,” Foundation president Tony Mortali said. “This watch list is a great start to what is shaping up to be another exciting year of college football.”

A total of 45 players from 35 different schools representing 11 conferences (including independents) are represented on the preseason watch list. Pratt is one of two players from the American Athletic Conference (AAC) to be named to the list. He is one of 20 quarterbacks on the watch list.

This is the fourth preseason watch list that Pratt has been named to as he is also a candidate for the Wuerffel Trophy, the Maxwell Trophy and the Davey O’Brien Award.

The 2023 watch list will be narrowed to 10 semi-finalists in mid-November. The 2023 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, which is voted on by the 133 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced on ESPN’s College Football Awards Show in December. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation’s 57th annual national awards banquet in New Haven, Conn. in early 2024.

Pratt is coming off a 2022 season in which he played in and started 13 games, went 215 for 338 in passing, had a 63.6 completion percentage (third best in a single season), threw for 3,009 yards (fourth most in a single season), threw for 27 touchdowns (third most in a single season) and had a 161.8 passing efficiency rating. He also finished second all-time at the school in a single season with his 5.4 touchdown to interception ratio and with his 8.9 yards per attempt. Pratt also finished second on the team in 2022 with his 129 carries for 478 yards and 10 touchdowns. His 10 rushing touchdowns are the second-most ever recorded by a Tulane quarterback in a single season. In his career, Pratt has started 35 games while completing 544 of 920 passes for 7,196 yards and 68 passing touchdowns. He also has had 349 rushing attempts for 849 yards and 23 touchdowns. He enters the season ranking in the top-10 in the career record books at Tulane in lowest interception ratio (1st – 2.28), passing efficiency (1st – 144.7), passing touchdowns (3rd – 68), completion percentage (4th – 59.1), passing yards per game (4th-205.6), passing yards (5th – 7,196), completions (6th – 544), 300-yard passing games (6th – 5), completions per game (7th – 15.54) and yards per completion (7th – 13.22). His 68 passing touchdowns are only two from reaching Shaun King for second and only four from tying the Patrick Ramsey’s school record.

Earlier in the summer, Tulane was voted as the preseason favorite in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) in the annual media poll and also ranked No. 23 nationally in the USA TODAY Sports/AFCA Preseason Coaches Poll. The program also has preseason candidates for the Rimington Trophy (Sincere Haynesworth), the Paul Hornung Award (Jha’Quan Jackson), the Wuerffel Trophy (Pratt), the Patrick Mannelly Award (Ethan Hudak), the Maxwell Award (Pratt), the Outland Trophy (Sincere Haynesworth and Prince Pines), the Bronko Nagurski Award (Darius Hodges and Jarius Monroe), the Davey O’Brien Award (Pratt) and the Jim Thorpe Award (Monroe).

This season, Tulane brings back four of the team’s five starters on the offensive line (Sincere Haynesworth, Prince Pines, Josh Remetich, Rashad Green), two of the team’s top three rushers (Michael Pratt and Shaadie Clayton-Johnson), the starting quarterback (Pratt), two of the top four receivers (Jha’Quan Jackson and Lawrence Keys III), the team’s punter (Casey Glover), the team’s kicker (Valentino Ambrosio), the team’s leader in interceptions (Jarius Monroe) and three of the five leading defensive players in tackles for loss (Patrick Jenkins, Darius Hodges and Keith Cooper Jr.).

In 2022, Tulane’s football team completed an unprecedented 12-2 campaign, culminating with an American Athletic Conference title and a 46-45 win over USC in the Cotton Bowl. At season’s end, the Green Wave finished with a ninth overall ranking, the second-highest in program history. Tulane opens the 2023 season at Yulman Stadium hosting South Alabama on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.

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2023 Walter Camp Player of Year Preseason Players to Watch
Braelon Allen, RB, Wisconsin
Joe Alt, OL, Notre Dame
Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia
Chevan Cordiero, QB, San Jose State
Dontay Corleone, DL, Cincinnati
Blake Corum, RB, Michigan
Jalon Daniels, QB, Kansas
Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
Marquez Cooper, RB, Eastern Michigan
Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State
Tommy Eichenberg, LB, Ohio State
Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas
Olu Fashanu, OL, Penn State
Dillon Gabriel, QB, Oklahoma
Frank Gore, Jr., RB, Southern Miss
Taylen Green, QB, Boise State
Frank Harris, QB, UTSA
Marvin Harrison, Jr., WR, Ohio State
Sam Hartman, QB, Notre Dame
TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Ohio State
Bucky Irving, RB, Oregon
Quinshon Judkins, RB, Ole Miss
Jaylin Lucas, RB/KR, Indiana
Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina
Grayson McCall, QB, Coastal Carolina
J.J. McCarthy, QB, Michigan
Kool-Aid McKinstry, DB, Alabama
Joe Milton, QB, Tennessee
Jer’Zhan Newton, DL, Illinois
Bo Nix, QB, Oregon
Rome Odunze, WR, Washington
Jaydn Ott, RB, California
Michael Pennix, Jr., QB, Washington
Harold Perkins, LB, LSU
Michael Pratt, QB, Tulane
Will Rogers, QB, Mississippi State
Austin Reed, QB, Western Kentucky
Kurtis Rourke, QB, Ohio
Raheim Sanders, RB, Arkansas
Nicholas Singleton, RB, Penn State
Jordan Travis, QB, Florida State
Jeremiah Trotter, LB, Clemson
Jared Verse, DE, Florida State
Caleb Williams, QB, USC
Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas

About the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award
Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation – https://waltercamp.org/ a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.

Sixteen NCFAA members are unveiling preseason watch lists over a two-week period as the association spearheads a coordinated effort to promote each award’s preseason candidates.