The 2017 Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s top defensive back, watch list was announced on Friday afternoon.
As the week winds down, the last award watch list until Monday afternoon was announced Friday. The Jim Thorpe Award, given annually to the nation’s top defensive back, announced its preseason watch list and there were some familiar names to make the cut.
Check out the entire preseason 2017 Jim Thorpe Award watch list here.
Some major stars have won this award over the years before heading off to the NFL to test their sticky coverage at the next level.
For example, Charles Woodson won back in 1997, Roy Williams in 2001, Terrance Newman the following season, Eric Berry in 2009, Patrick Peterson in 2010 and Morris Claiborne in 2011. While there have been some busts who have taken home the award, a good number of them have had successful NFL careers.
Last year’s winner was Adoree Jackson of USC who was considered one of the top athletes in college football and he was selected 18th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Titans. Before that, it was junior Desmond King of Iowa who decided to come back for one more season, but his stock dropped tremendously as he fell to the fifth round.
Who are some of the top names on this list this season? You have Louisville’s Jaire Alexander, Penn State’s Marcus Allen, Virginia’s Quin Blanding, Stanford’s Quenton Meeks, USC’s Iman Marshall, Florida State’s Derwin James, Alabama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick, Washington’s Taylor Rapp, Ohio State’s Denzel Ward and Texas A&M’s Armani Watts, to name a handful.
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The winner of this year’s award will have to fight off a dozen elite names. We named our favorites, who are yours?