Stanford senior guard Joshua Garnett was awarded the 2015 Outland Trophy, awarded to the nation’s most outstanding interior lineman, on Thursday night at the ESPN College Football Awards Show. He became Stanford’s first ever recipient of the award.

“We recruit big, strong, fast, physical guys,” Garnett said. “To win this award and bring it back to the Tunnel Workers’ Union means so much.”

The other finalists of the Outland Trophy were offensive lineman Spencer Drango of Baylor and defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson of Alabama.

Garnett has started 26 consecutive games at left guard after seeing lots of action his freshman and sophomore years as an extra offensive lineman in Stanford’s heavy packages and had 82 pancake blocks through the first 11 games of the season.

Behind Garnett, one of the captains of the team and a centerpiece of the Stanford offensive line, the Cardinal’s running attack finished 19th in the country, averaging 225.08 yards per game on the ground.

Garnett made numerous highlight reels this season with one block against Washington in which he threw a monstrous lead block on Huskies safety JoJo McIntosh on a screen pass to fullback Daniel Marx, but it’s been his consistent play in both pass and run blocking, especially as the pulling guard on Stanford’s power runs, that has cemented his status at one of the best in the league.

Garnett is anticipated to be a first-round or second-round pick in the upcoming 2016 NFL Draft.

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu.