The Butkus Award’s preseason watch list was announced Monday. The award is given each year to college football’s best linebacker. Here’s the full, official list:
2013 college football’s best linebackers: The Butkus watch list
It’s a Who’s Who of the nation’s top linebackers.
- Jerry Attaochu, Georgia Tech
- Anthony Barr, UCLA
- Lamin Barrow, LSU
- Dorian Bell, Duquesne
- Greg Blair, Cincinnati
- Chris Borland, Wisconsin
- Carl Bradford, Arizona State
- Preston Brown, Louisville
- Jonathan Brown, Illinois
- Max Bullough, Michigan State
- Carlo Calabrese, Notre Dame
- Glenn Carson, Penn State
- Steele Divitto, Boston College
- Dan Fox, Notre Dame
- Jeremiah George, Iowa State
- Spencer Hadley, BYU
- Bryce Hager, Baylor
- Anthony Hitchens, Iowa
- Adrian Hubbard, Alabama
- Cqulin Hubert, Southeastern Louisiana
- Andrew Jackson, Western Kentucky
- Jordan Jenkins, Georgia
- Derrell Johnson, East Carolina
- A.J. Johnson, Tennessee
- Christian Jones, Florida State
- Eric Kendricks, UCLA
- Christian Kirksey, Iowa
- Dede Lattimore, South Florida
- Boseko Lokombo, Oregon
- Khalil Mack, Buffalo
- Benardrick McKinney, Mississippi State
- Jamal Merrell, Rutgers
- James Morris, Iowa
- C.J. Mosley, Alabama
- Trent Murphy, Stanford
- Hayes Pullard, USC
- Trevor Reilly, Utah
- D.T. Shackelford, Mississippi
- Ryan Shazier, Ohio State
- Prince Shembo, Notre Dame
- Deontae Skinner, Mississippi State
- Shane Skov, Stanford
- Yawin Smallwood, Connecticut
- Telvin Smith, Florida State
- Uani Unga, BYU
- Kyle Van Noy, BYU
- Brandon Watts, Georgia Tech
- Derrick Webb, Colorado
- Avery Williamson, Kentucky
- Chris Young, Arizona State
- Jordan Zumwalt, UCLA
Let's go with UCLA's Anthony Barr, BYU's Kyle Van Noy, and Alabama's C.J. Mosley as the favorites, as they're first-teamers on SB Nation's preseason All-America team.
Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o won the award last season, making him the first player to win the high school and college versions. The college award has been given out since 1985 while the high school honor -- along with its NFL counterpart -- has existed since 2008.
Boston College's Luke Kuechly won the award in 2011 and Texas A&M's Von Miller took it home in 2010. Rolando McClain was honored while playing for the national champion Alabama Crimson Tide in 2009.
Oklahoma claims the most Butkus winners with four all time whereas six schools -- Alabama, Colorado, Florida State, Illinois, Ohio State and Penn State -- have two winners to their names. Brian Bosworth is the only two-time winner after winning the first two Butkus awards in 1985 and 1986.
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