Penn State defensive trio named on Bednarik Award watch list

No school has more Chuck Bednarik Awards than Penn State. These three players hope to add another to the collection in 2023.

No school has more Chuck Bednarik Award winners than Penn State, and the Nittany Lions have three players looking to keep it that way this season.

The watch list for the Bednarik Award (most outstanding defensive player in college football) was released on Monday, and it included three of Penn State’s top defensive stars. Linebacker [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag], cornerback [autotag]Kalen King[/autotag], and defensive end [autotag]Chop Robinson[/autotag] were each included on the award’s watch list from the Maxwell Football Club.

Carter started six games and played in all 13 games for Penn State in 2022. He earned All-Big Ten second-team honors and was a freshman All-American for the FWAA. He led Penn State with 10.5 tackles for loss last season and he finished fourth in the Big Ten with 6.5 sacks last season.

Carter has also appeared on the watch lists for the Butkus Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, and the Lott IMPACT Trophy.

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King is coming off a stellar season in the Penn State defense in 2022. He was named a third-team All-Big Ten player by the Big Ten coaches and media and received third-team All-America from Pro Football Focus and an honorable mention for All-American by Phil Steele. The Walter Camp Football Foundation named King a second-team All-American.

King has also been named to the watch lists for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, Bronko Nagurski Award, and the Jim Thorpe Award.

Robinson transferred to Penn State from Maryland and he quickly asserted himself as a playmaker on the Penn State defensive line. Robinson appeared in 12 games and recorded 10 tackles for a loss with 5.5 sacks. He earned team defensive player of the week honors three times last season, including in the Rose Bowl against Utah.

Robinson also appears on the watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Award.

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The Chuck Bednarik Award was first presented by the Maxwell Football Club in 1995 to former Northwestern linebacker (and head coach) Pat Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald won the award each of the first two years it was presented. He is one of two two-time winners of the Bednarik Award.

Penn State’s Paul Posluszny is the other. Pusluszny won back-to-back Bednarik Awards in 2005 and 2006, and he was followed a year later by Dan Conner to make it three consecutive seasons for Penn State to be home to the Bednarik Award. Penn State’s first Bednarik Award winner was linebacker LaVar Arrington in 1999.

Penn State may have four all-time Bednarik Awards, but they are tied with Alabama for the most individual players to have won the Bednarik Award with three each. Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr. was last season’s Bednarik Award winner.

Other notable Bednarik Award winners through the years include Charles Woodson (Michigan, 1997), Julius Peppers (North Carolina, 2001), Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska, 2009), Tyrann Mathieu (LSU, 2011), Aaron Donald (Pitt, 2013), Chase Young (Ohio State, 2019), and Jordan Davis (Georgia, 2021).

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