The Maxwell Football Club announced on Tuesday its watch list for the 22nd annual Chuck Bednarik Award. The Bednarik Award has been presented to the College Defensive Player of the Year since 1995. Chuck Bednarik, former standout at Penn and with the Philadelphia Eagles, is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame's Class of '69 and the NFL Hall of Fame's Class of '67.
The watch lists will once again incorporate a broad spectrum of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs and conferences from coast to coast. The Chuck Bednarik Award watch list is headlined by two 2015 semifinalists, as Texas A&M junior Myles Garrett and LSU senior Kendell Beckwith return for the 2016 campaign.
MORE: Check here for full preseason watch lists
Alabama checks in with a senior quartet of four Tide players; Jonathan Allen, Reuben Foster, Eddie Jackson and Tim Williams, making the cut. Clemson, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, TCU and Texas A&M are all strongly represented by three candidates each.
2015 Bednarik Award winner Tyler Matakevich of Temple has also moved on to the professional ranks and is now a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The members of the NCFAA are unveiling their preseason watch lists over a 12-day period this month. Seventeen of the association’s 22 awards select a preseason watch list and the NCFAA has spearheaded a coordinated effort to promote each award’s preseason candidates.
Semifinalists for the Bednarik Award will be announced Oct. 31, 2016, while the three finalists for each award will be unveiled Nov. 21. The winners of the 2016 Bednarik Award will be announced as part of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on Dec. 8. The formal presentations of these awards will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala on March 10, 2017.
