Andrew Luck, Kellen Moore and Trent Richardson have been named as finalists for the 2011 Maxwell Award.
Luck has throw for 2,937 yards and 31 touchdowns for the Stanford Cardinal this season. Considered by many to be the sure-thing No. 1 draft pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, Luck had led Stanford to a 10-1 record so far.
Moore has thrown for 2,915 yards and 35 touchdowns with only six interceptions in ten games for the Boise St. Broncos in 2011. He has a quarterback rating of 177.5 and a 73.8% completion rate.
RB Richardson had led the Alabama Crimson Tide with 1,380 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground as well as 322 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air.
Robert "Tiny" Maxwell was an absurdly large man. There is a famous photo of his face, beaten and bloodied so badly that Teddy Roosevelt almost banned football when he saw it. This ultimately led to a number of rule changes to make the game safer and the forward pass was legalized at the same time as these safety-enhancing rules were put into place. Maxwell played professionally, then became an official and a journalist. He died in 1922 and the Maxwell Club was founded in 1937. Each year since then, the Maxwell Award has been given out.
The award is a "most outstanding player" award and is generally reserved for offensive players. Quarterbacks have won the award every year since 2003. Cameron Newton won the 2010 award and Tim Tebow won the previous two Maxwell Awards, making him only the second player to win the award twice.