Illinois quarterback Wes Lunt named to 2016 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List|Illinois Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

Illinois football’s Wes Lunt was named to another preseason watch list on Thursday. The Fighting Illini senior is an early candidate for the 2016 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is given to the nation’s top quarterback based on character, citizenship, scholastic achievement, leadership and athletic accomplishments. The award is exclusively for college seniors and four-year juniors on track to graduate. You can view the entire 42-player list right here.

Lunt joins Tommy Armstrong (Nebraska), J.T. Barrett (Ohio State), CJ Beathard (Iowa), Bart Houston (Wisconsin), Mitch Leidner (Minnesota), Tyler O’Connor (Michigan State), and John O’Korn (Michigan) as one of eight Big Ten players mentioned.

This is Lunt’s third honor of the preseason; he has also been named to watch lists for the Davey O’Brien Award (top quarterback) and Maxwell Award (top college player) last month.

Barring an injury during training camp, Lunt will be Illinois’ starting quarterback for the third-straight season. In 2015, he passed for 2,761 yards and 14 touchdowns while only throwing 7 interceptions. Which, all things considered, was a pretty fantastic year given the amount of uncertainty surrounding the program.