This year’s Jim Thorpe award preseason watch list was released earlier today. The award, given to the top defensive back in college football every year at the College Football Awards in December, is presented by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
This year’s favorites include Florida State’s Jalen Ramsey, Ole Miss’s Tony Conner, Virginia Tech’s Kendall Fuller and Florida’s Vernon Hargreaves III.
The Mountain West conference leads all conferences with six nominations, while the ACC and Pac-12 both come in with five. The list also features five schools with two players nominated. One of them, UCLA, isn’t very surprising. The other four (Louisiana Tech, Boise State, Houston, and San Diego State) aren’t as predictable.
The 42-player list includes a total of five underclassmen (three true sophomores and two redshirt sophomores), most notably USC’s 3-way threat Adoreé Jackson.
But that’s the nice thing about these pre-season award watch lists. They recognize players from smaller programs who wouldn’t normally get much publicity. FIU, UMass, Air Force and Tulane, for example, all had a player in the 42-man field.
The list also isn’t set in stone. As recently as last year, for example, Louisville’s Gerod Holliman took home the award despite not making the preseason watch list.
The full list can be seen below.
Ishmael Adams, UCLA
Mackensie Alexander, Clemson
Tony Annese, Central Michigan
Budda Baker, Washington
Adairius Barnes, Louisiana Tech
Dante Barnett, Kansas State
Vonn Bell, Ohio State
Quin Blanding, Virginia
Kevin Byard, Middle Tennessee
Michael Caputo, Wisconsin
Jeremy Cash, Duke
Tony Conner, Ole Miss
Donte Deayon, Boise State
Kendall Fuller, Virginia Tech
Vernon Hargreaves III, Florida
Nate Holley, Kent State
Adoree’ Jackson, USC
William Jackson, Houston
Randall Jette, UMass
Jonathan Jones, Auburn
Karl Joseph, West Virginia
Damontae Kazee, SDSU
Montres Kitchens, Troy
Mitch Lane, ULM
Richard Leonard, FIU
William Likely, Maryland
Paris Logan, Northern Illinois
Trent Matthews, Colorado State
Adrian McDonald, Houston
Doug Middleton, Appalachian State
David Mims II, Texas State
Fabian Moreau, UCLA
Parry Nickerson, Tulane
Kevin Peterson, Oklahoma State
Jalen Ramsey, Florida State
Max Redfield, Notre Dame
Zack Sanchez, Oklahoma
Jordan Simone, Arizona State
Weston Steelhammer, Air Force
Darian Thompson, Boise State
JJ Whittaker, SDSU
Xavier Woods, Louisiana Tech
Can’t get enough of Campus Sports? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with the latest news and exclusive giveaways!
