The Bednarik Award watch list is out, and it features Jadeveon Clowney, amongst some other people who aren't as terrifying as Jadeveon Clowney. Here's the full, official preseason list:
Best 2013 college football defensive players, besides Jadeveon Clowney: The Bednarik list
Jadeveon Clowney is the favorite to win the 2013 Bednarik Award, because Jadeveon Clowney.
Manti Te'o was the easy pick last year, as the Notre Dame linebacker was the only defensive player amongst three Heisman finalists.
There are, of course, other candidates besides Clowney. BYU's Kyle Van Noy does a lot of everything for the Cougars, Louis Nix III will hope to make it back-to-back Bednariks for Notre Dame, and C.J. Mosley is one of, like, 15 deserving Alabama defenders. But it's Clowney's honor to lose.
Presented by the Maxwell Football Club, a Philadelphia-based organization that also gives the Maxwell Award, there seems to be a slight bias towards Pennsylvania players. For starters, the trophy is named after Penn great and Eagles Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik, who incidentally was a dominating offensive lineman in addition to playing linebacker. But with regard to the bias, four of the 17 winners of the trophy have been Nittany Lions, twice as many as any other school. But that hasn’t played out of late, and seems unlikely to do so this year.
I could write a thousand words on why we should all be terrified of presumptive favorite Clowney, even as we go about our daily lives, but a picture is worth that, and this GIF is worth like two million words:
OHHHHHH-HOHOHO! DUDE! IT STILL GETS ME EVERY TIME.
As if Clowney wasn’t terrifying enough last year, he gained 17 pounds and somehow managed to become faster. Heblocks kicks by snatching the ball out of the holder’s hand. He will almost certainly be the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, prompting some to say Clowney should sit out this year. He won’t, though, and thus, he’s the runaway favorite to get the Bednarik. There is a reason we have an entire section of our website dedicated to The Legend of Jadeveon Clowney.
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