College football season is still a few months away, but preseason award lists have started to be handed out.
For the second straight year, LSU junior running back Leonard Fournette landed on the Maxwell Award watch list, which is awarded to college football’s best player.
The 6-foot-1, 230-pound tailback is coming off a season in which he led the nation in rushing yards per game, broke the LSU single season rushing yards record with 1,953 and broke the touchdown record with 22.
Fournette was also a consensus first-team All-American last year and rushed for at least 100 yards in 10 games last season.
Ole Miss senior quarterback Chad Kelly, Florida State junior running back Dalvin Cook and Clemson junior quarterback Deshaun Watson were also among the players that made the Maxwell Award watch list.
The Maxwell Award has been given out to college football’s best player since 1937.
A trio of Tigers on the defensive side of the ball were also named to watch lists.
Three LSU players, senior cornerback Tre’Davious White, senior linebacker Kendell Beckwith and junior safety Jamal Adams, were named to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list, which is handed to the nation’s best defensive player.
Adams, a Lewisville, Texas native, was third on the team in tackles with 67, had four interceptions last season and was also named to the All-SEC second team.
White and Beckwith return to the Tigers after turning down the NFL for a chance to win a national championship this upcoming season. Beckwith, who was a semifinalist for the award last season, finished second on the team in tackles with 76 during his 2015 campaign.
White earned a spot on the All-SEC second team after recording 38 tackles and seven pass breakups last season, which led the team.
Former LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu was the last player to win the award for the Tigers back in 2011.
Texas A&M junior defensive end Myles Garrett, Alabama senior linebacker Reuben Foster and Auburn senior defensive end Carl Lawson were also among the players that made the watch list.
LSU senior center Ethan Pocic was named to the Rimington Trophy watch list, which goes to college football’s top center.
The 6-foot-7, 309-pound offensive lineman started all 11 games last season and was named to the All-SEC second team.
Pocic finished the 2015 season with a team-best 132.5 knockdown blocks, which was the highest total by an LSU offensive lineman since at least 2010, according to LSU Sports Information.
Arkansas junior center Frank Ragnow, Ole Miss senior center Robert Crozier and Mississippi State senior center Jamaal Clayborn were also named to the list.
The Lou Groza, Ray Guy, Nagurski, Outland, Thorpe, Butkus, Lombardi, Biletnikoff, Davey O’Brien, Doak Walker, Walter Camp award lists will be
announced in the coming weeks.
Fournette, Pocic, White, Adams and Beckwith are four of the 18 starters that return for LSU next season, which hopes to compete for a national
championship.
LSU junior center Ethan Pocic (77) prepares to snap the ball during the Tigers’ 44 to 22 victory against Eastern Michigan on Saturday October 3 2015, in Tiger Stadium.
