Bednarik Award Watch List 2015: Full List Released

The Maxwell Football Club released the initial watch list Tuesday for the 2015 Chuck Bednarik Award. The honor is given annually to the top defensive player in college football. Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright III is the current trophy holder.  

Along with Wright, some of the top contenders heading into the season include Ohio State defensive lineman Joey Bosa, Baylor defensive lineman Shawn Oakman and Florida defensive back Vernon Hargreaves III, among others.

Here's the complete watch list from the Maxwell Football Club:

Player	Pos.	School	Player	Pos.	School
Mackensie Alexander	CB	Clemson	Karl Joseph	S	West Virginia
Kevin Anderson	LB	Stanford	Bronson Kaufusi	DE	BYU
Budda Baker	S	Washington	Derrick Kindred	S	TCU
Dante Barnett	S	Kansas State	Shaq Lawson	DE	Clemson
Derek Barnett	DE	Tennessee	William Likely	CB	Maryland
Kendell Beckwith	LB	LSU	Curt Maggitt	LB	Tennessee
Vince Biegel	LB	Wisconsin	Blake Martinez	LB	Stanford
Zeek Bigger	LB	East Carolina	Tyler Matakevich	LB	Temple
Andrew Billings	NT	Baylor	Cassanova McKinzy	LB	Auburn
Quin Blanding	S	Virginia	Jalen Mills	S	LSU
Briean Boddy-Calhoun	CB	Minnesota	Antonio Morrison	LB	Florida
Joey Bosa	DE	Ohio State	Eric Murray	CB	Minnesota
Kentrell Brothers	LB	Missouri	Dadi Nicolas	DE	Virginia Tech
Kelby Brown	LB	Duke	Robert Nkemdiche	DT	Ole Miss
DeForest Buckner	DE	Oregon	Jared Norris	LB	Utah
Shilique Calhoun	DE	Michigan State	Shawn Oakman	DE	Baylor
Michael Caputo	S	Wisconsin	Emmanuel Ogbah	DE	Oklahoma State
Lloyd Carrington	CB	Arizona State	Will Parks	S	Arizona
Jeremy Cash	S	Duke	Joshua Perry	LB	Ohio State
Brandon Chubb	LB	Wake Forest	Davion Pierson	DT	TCU
Kenny Clark	DT	UCLA	Reggie Ragland	LB	Alabama
Maliek Collins	DT	Nebraska	Jalen Ramsey	DB	Florida State
Kamalei Correa	DE	Boise State	Sheldon Rankins	DE	Louisville
Su'a Cravens	LB	USC	Will Redmond	CB	Mississippi State
Ed Davis	LB	Michigan State	Pete Robertson	LB	Texas Tech
Sheldon Day	DT	Notre Dame	A'Shawn Robinson	DL	Alabama
Kyler Fackrell	LB	Utah State	Mike Rose	DE	NC State
Leonard Floyd	LB	Georgia	KeiVarae Russell	CB	Notre Dame
Josh Forrest	LB	Kentucky	Zack Sanchez	CB	Oklahoma
Kendall Fuller	CB	Virginia Tech	Jovan Santos-Knox	LB	Massachusetts
Myles Garrett	DE	Texas A&M	Terrance Smith	LB	Florida State
Adam Gotsis	DT	Georgia Tech	Jaylon Smith	LB	Notre Dame
Darius Hamilton	DL	Rutgers	Eric Striker	LB	Oklahoma
Vernon Hargreaves III	CB	Florida	Cameron Sutton	CB	Tennessee
Tylor Harris	DT	Wake Forest	Charles Tapper	DE	Oklahoma
Myles Jack	LB	UCLA	Darian Thompson	S	Boise State
William Jackson	CB	Houston	Jeremy Timpf	LB	Army
Adoree' Jackson	CB	USC	Nick Vigil	LB	Utah State
Jordan Jenkins	LB	Georgia	Scooby Wright III	LB	Arizona
Chris Jones	DT	Mississippi State	Anthony Zettel	DT	Penn State

Wright was a monster in the middle of the Wildcats defense last season. He racked up 163 total tackles, including 29 for a loss, 14 sacks and six forced fumbles while helping lead the team to a 10-4 record and a berth in the Fiesta Bowl.

Given Arizona's fast-paced style of play, the talented linebacker should be in line to produce another award-contending season.

Bosa should be firmly in the running once again, too. The edge-rusher, who's already projected to go first overall in early 2016 mock drafts, has registered 21 sacks over his first two seasons with the Buckeyes and will continue to benefit from the team's terrific depth up front.

Along with the aforementioned Oakman and Hargreaves, some other names worth monitoring closely include A'Shawn Robinson from Alabama, Shilique Calhoun from Michigan State, Su'a Cravens from USC and Robert Nkemdiche from Ole Miss.

Some notable past recipients of the coveted award are Pat Fitzgerald, Charles Woodson, Julius Peppers, Paul Posluszny and Ndamukong Suh.

It's also worth noting this will mark the first season the award will be handed out without its namesake around to witness the achievement. Chuck Bednarik died in March but left behind some outstanding advice for those looking to follow in his legendary footsteps:

All told, there's a great group of defensive players out there this season, which should make the awards race even more intriguing.

Wright probably enters the campaign as the favorite, but that distinction will likely be passed around several times before a winner is crowned in December.