ORLANDO, Fla. — LSU cornerbacks Tyrann Mathieu and Morris Claiborne will be up for several national honors at 8 p.m. CT Thursday as the two along with head coach Les Miles will be attending the 2011 ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards at Walt Disney World’s Atlantic Boardwalk Dance Hall in Orlando.
Miles will be the recipient of the Home Depot Coach of the Year Award during the two-hour show after leading LSU to a 13-0 record, a BCS National Championship Game appearance and an SEC Championship title. Of LSU’s 13 wins this year, eight have come against ranked opponents and seven of those eight have been of the double-digit variety.
Mathieu is up for the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s most outstanding defensive player and he is also a finalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year. Claiborne is one of three finalists for the Jim Thorpe Award, presented annually to college football’s top defensive back. LSU seeks to bring home the Bednarik Award and Thorpe Award for the second straight year as Patrick Peterson swept the honors last year.
Mathieu and Claiborne arrived in Orlando Wednesday evening and attended an EA Sports Gala at the ESPN Club at Walt Disney World’s Boardwalk with the finalists of the other awards being handed out. The two will also film behind the scenes footage for ESPN on various amusement park rides on Thursday.
Claiborne is slated to be a guest on a roundtable for College Football Live, which airs at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN. College Football Live re-airs on ESPNU at 3 p.m. CT and 5 p.m. CT. Mathieu will join the four other finalists of the Heisman Trophy on the Heisman Roundtable show at 4 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
The ESPNU Red Carpet Show gets underway at 7 p.m. CT leading up to the main show on ESPN at 8 p.m. CT.
Mathieu begins a busy weekend of events as he will head to New York on Friday with four other finalists for the Heisman Trophy. The 77th-annual Heisman Memorial Trophy will be presented live Saturday on ESPN at 7 p.m. CT from the Best Buy Theatre in Times Square.
Walter Camp Award Finalists
Robert Griffin III, Baylor
Case Keenum, Houston
Andrew Luck, Stanford
Tyrann Mathieu, LSU
Trent Richardson, Alabama
Chuck Bednarik Award Finalists
Dont’a Hightower, Alabama
Tyrann Mathieu, LSU
Devon Still, Penn State
Jim Thorpe Award Finalists
David Amerson, NC State
Mark Barron, Alabama
Morris Claiborne, LSU
All-Time Home Depot Coach of the Year Award Recipients
1994 – Rich Brooks, Oregon
1995 – Gary Barnett, Colorado
1996 – Bobby Bowden, Florida State
1997 – Mike Price, Washington State
1998 – Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee
1999 – Frank Solich, Nebraska
2000 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
2001 – Ralph Friedgen, Maryland
2002 – Tyrone Willingham, Notre Dame
2003 – Pete Carroll, USC
2004 – Urban Meyer, Utah
2005 – Joe Paterno, Penn State
2006 – Greg Schiano, Rutgers
2007 – Mark Mangino, Kansas
2008 – Nick Saban, Alabama
2009 – Brian Kelly, Cincinnati
2010 – Gene Chizik, Auburn
2011 – Les Miles, LSU