Brace yourselves, everybody, because college football award watch list season is in full swing! The fun got underway on Monday with the release of the watch lists for the Bednarik Award and the Maxwell Award from the Maxwell Football Club.
The Maxwell Award has been awarded annually to the top overall player in college football since 1973. Though not won by the Heisman Trophy winner every season, the award has gone to the Heisman Trophy winner each of the past three seasons, including Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson last year. The Big Ten currently has the longest drought for a Maxwell Award winner among the Power 5 conferences. Penn State running back Larry Johnson was the most recent Big Ten player to win the award in 2002. Since then, the SEC (6), Big 12 (3), Pac-12 (2), and ACC (1) have all had at least one Maxwell Award winner since 2003. Notre Dame has also had two Maxwell Award winners in that span.
Quarterbacks and running backs dominate the watch list, with 34 passers and 33 rushers on the initial watch list. Since 1994, only Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o has managed to break up the run of quarterbacks and running backs winning the award.
This year’s Maxwell Award watch list is below...
RB Josh Adams, Notre Dame
QB Austin Allen, Arkansas
QB Josh Allen, Wyoming
RB Kalen Ballage, Arizona State
RB Saquon Barkley, Penn State
QB J.T. Barrett, Ohio State
QB Jake Bentley, South Carolina
RB D’Angelo Brewer, Tulsa
OT Orlando Brown, Oklahoma
QB Jake Browning, Washington
QB Shane Buechele, Texas
RB Nick Chubb, Georgia
RB Justin Crawford, West Virginia
RB Damarea Crockett, Missouri
QB Sam Darnold, USC
QB Eric Dungey, Syracuse
QB Jacob Eason, Georgia
QB Jesse Ertz, Kansas State
QB Luke Falk, Washington State
QB Riley Ferguson, Memphis
QB Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi State
DB Minkah Fitzpatrick, Alabama
QB Quinton Flowers, USF
QB Deondre Francois, Florida State
RB Royce Freeman, Oregon
RB Myles Gaskin, Washington
RB James Gilbert, Ball State
WR Janarion Grant, Rutgers
QB Will Grier, West Virginia
RB Derrius Guice, LSU
AP Quadree Henderson, Pitt
RB Kyle Hicks, TCU
QB Jalen Hurts, Alabama
QB Lamar Jackson, Louisville
RB Justin Jackson, Northwestern
S Derwin James, Florida State
QB Daniel Jones, Duke
DE Arden Key, LSU
WR Christian Kirk, Texas A&M
DE Harold Landry, Boston College
RB Ray Lawry, Old Dominion
RB Phillip Lindsay, Colorado
RB Bryce Love, Stanford
QB Tanner Mangum, BYU
QB Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
OT Mike McGlinchey, Notre Dame
QB Trace McSorley, Penn State
RB Dedrick Mills, Georgia Tech
RB Jalin Moore, Appalachian State
RB Ryan Nall, Oregon State
OT Cody O’Connell, Washington State
DT Ed Oliver, Houston
QB Jacob Park, Iowa State
QB Shea Patterson, Ole Miss
RB Rashaad Penny, San Diego State
RB Kamryn Pettway, Auburn
WR Calvin Ridley, Alabama
RB Larry Rose III, New Mexico State
QB Josh Rosen, UCLA
QB Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State
QB Brett Rypien, Boise State
WR Deebo Samuel, South Carolina
AP Jaylen Samuels, N.C. State
RB Bo Scarbrough, Alabama
RB LJ Scott, Michigan State
QB Brandon Silvers, Troy
RB Rodney Smith, Minnesota
RB Ito Smith, Southern Miss
RB Benny Snell, Kentucky
QB Wilton Speight, Michigan
QB Jarrett Stidham, Auburn
QB Brent Stockstill, Middle Tennessee
QB Clayton Thorson, Northwestern
RB Akrum Wadley, Iowa
RB Mark Walton, Miami
RB Chris Warren III, Texas
WR James Washington, Oklahoma State
RB Ralph Webb, Vanderbilt
RB Mike Weber, Ohio State
QB Mike White, WKU
DE Christian Wilkins, Clemson
OT Connor Williams, Texas
RB Trayveon Williams, Texas A&M
QB Logan Woodside, Toledo
QB Malik Zaire, Florida