It's been a few hours since I last told you about Big East players on a preseason watch list. Don't worry. Your long nightmare is over.

The Butkus Award watch list is out, recognizing the top preseason candidates for the nation's best linebacker. And two Big East schools are all over the list.

The league nominees are:

• Doug Hogue and Derrell Smith, Syracuse
• Scott Lutrus, Lawrence Wilson and Greg Lloyd, Connecticut

Never mind that Lloyd isn't, you know, actually going to play this season. He's redshirting while recovering from a knee injury. No beef with the other four selections but it seems to me that West Virginia's J.T. Thomas and Cincinnati's JK Schaffer deserved some recognition. And watch out for Pitt's Dan Mason, who could have a breakout year in a system that's designed for the middle linebacker to make a ton of plays -- and rack up plenty of award-friendly stats.

Anyway, that's all the award news for this hour. But stay tuned.