Awards watch: Oregon football's Bo Nix, alum LaMichael James, Duck OC Will Stein

The Oregon football team might have nearly a month off until its Fiesta Bowl matchup against Liberty, but the month of December won’t be any less hectic than the eventful regular season the Ducks just went through.

Starting Tuesday, several Ducks including quarterback Bo Nix, will begin the awards circuit, culminating with the presentation of the Heisman Trophy on Saturday. That, combined with the early signing period starting Dec. 20, makes for a busy month for coach Dan Lanning and company.

“December is a crazy month for coaches and players alike,” Lanning said. “You know our guys are wrapping up finals in this week of December. As coaches, we’ll be on the road. Several of us are already on the road right now ... I’ll be traveling out to go do some recruiting throughout this week.”

Oregon's Bo Nix, Jackson Powers-Johnson, OC Will Stein and former Duck LaMichael James up for awards

On Tuesday, former Oregon tailback and All-American LaMichael James will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in Las Vegas during the National Football Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner. During that same ceremony, the William V. Campbell Trophy winner – honoring the nation’s top football scholar-athlete – will be announced. Nix, who is majoring in communications and has a 3.62 GPA, is a finalist for the award.

ESPN+ will stream the event at 7 p.m.

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to make it to every single event,” Lanning said. “But I’m certainly hopeful to be at all the events I can be at. Certainly, I’ll be there Tuesday to support LaMichael and Bo there, and then this weekend as well. And then a lot of flights and travel between here and there for recruiting and everything else that exists.”

Elsewhere Tuesday, Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein is a finalist for the Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant coach. Stein was set to be in Little Rock on Monday and Tuesday for the festivities and award ceremony.

Then on Friday, the College Football Awards Show – hosted by ESPN – will start at 4 p.m. announcing most of the other major college football awards.

Nix is a finalist for the Maxwell, Davey O’Brien, and Walter Camp Player of the Year awards, and Oregon center Jackson Powers-Johnson is a finalist for the Rimington Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top center.

Oregon's Bo Nix, LSU's Jayden Daniels, Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr. and Washington's Michael Penix Jr. finalists for Heisman Trophy

The final award – and college football’s top individual prize – will be the Heisman Trophy ceremony, which begins Saturday at 5 p.m.

Nix is a finalist, along with LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., and Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

What's in store for Oregon football ahead of Fiesta Bowl

After this week, Lanning said the team would return to the practice field to ramp up for the Fiesta Bowl.

“We also have some other things to celebrate about some of the successes we’ve had this season,” Lanning said. “As we get into the kind of the second week of December, we’ll start to ramp up some practice opportunities, and you try to squeeze as many of them as you can around all the things that exist in December whether that’s signing day, or all the other pieces that exist in college football right now, but we’ll get as many practices as we can, make sure our guys get an opportunity to celebrate a little bit of the time with their families right around the Christmas holiday. And then get back there for our game at the Fiesta Bowl.”

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football's Bo Nix, LaMichael James, OC Will Stein up for awards