Three Sooners, Cowboy on trophy watch list

A trio of Oklahoma linemen — Bobby Evans, Ben Powers and Dru Samia — and Oklahoma State's Marcus Keyes are on the preseason watch list for the Outland Trophy, the Football Writers Association of America announced Tuesday.

The Outland Trophy honors the top interior lineman in college football.

Evans has started 26 games at right tackle over the last two seasons, including all 14 games a year ago.

Sooners offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh called Evans the most consistent of Oklahoma's linemen a year ago.

Powers has started 22 games over the last two seasons, starting 20 at left guard and two more on the right side.

Samia is the most experienced of the group, starting 34 games over the past three seasons including 12 last season at right guard.

Keyes has started 26 consecutive games at left guard over the past two seasons.

Among the others on the list is last year's winner, Houston's Ed Oliver.

The winner is chosen from three finalists who are part of the annual FWAA All-America team.

The FWAA All-America Committee selects the winner by individual ballot.

ESPN hires Mora as studio analyst

Former UCLA coach Jim Mora is joining ESPN as a college football analyst. He will fill the role Chip Kelly held last season before replacing Mora with the Bruins.

Mora was head coach at UCLA from 2012-17.

He was fired after 11 games last season.

He worked for the

NFL Network during the lead-up to this year's draft.

For ESPN, he will be part of ESPN2's Saturday studio show, hosted by Chris Cotter.

Former Texas star Emmanuel Acho will join Mora as an analyst on the show.

Kelly spent last season with ESPN, taking a year off from coaching after being fired by the San Francisco 49ers at the end of the 2016 season.

Mora has coached in the NFL with Atlanta and Seattle. He was 46-30 at UCLA.

Maine football player dies during workout

A University of Maine football player has collapsed and died during a preseason workout on campus.

University officials say 18-year-old Darius Minor,a political science major from Locust Grove, Virginia, collapsed Tuesday afternoon. Training staff and first responders were unable to resuscitate him.

Minor was in the third week of UMaine's Freshman Workout.

Officials say he was one of 17 first-year studentathletes participating when he collapsed about 15 minutes into a supervised light workout.