The Bednarik Award is the first major honor to release its watch list for the upcoming season. But it certainly won’t be the last. Far from it, actually.
In a release Monday, the Bednarik Award announced a 90-player strong watch list that represents every FBS conference in the country. The Bednarik Award has been presented annually since 1996 to the nation’s top player on the defensive side of the ball.
The ACC leads all conferences with 18 watch listers, with the Pac- 12 (13), SEC (11) and Big 12 (10) the only others in double digits. The Big Ten, the remaining Power Five, placed nine players.
Wit eight, Conference USA led all Group of Five leagues. Next up was the AAC’s six, followed by the Mountain West Conference and Sun Belt Conference with five each and four for the MAC.
School-wise, reigning national champion LSU, Pitt and USC placed three players apiece. A handful of other schools put two players each on the watch list:
- Alabama
- Appalachian State
- Cal
- Duke
- Florida State
- Georgia
- Miami
- Michigan
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- San Diego State
- TCU
- Texas
- UAB
- Virginia
- Virginia Tech
- Washington
No finalists from a year ago remain as both the winner (Ohio State’s Chase Young) and the two runners-up (Auburn’s Derrick Brown, Clemson’s Isaiah Simmons) have since moved on to the NFL. There are, though, three semifinalists for last year’s award that are back this season -- Penn State’s Micah Parson, LSU’s Derek Stingley and Florida State’s Marvin Wilson.
For the complete Bednarik Award watch list, click HERE.