All week the Alabama secondary had seemingly been ignored from most of the award watchlists.
Until now.
It was announced today that junior safety Xavier McKinney was selected to the Jim Thorpe Award watchlist for this upcoming season. He joins a list of 46 other defensive backs who are seen as potential winners of the prize.
The Jim Thorpe Award is handed out to college footballs best defensive back and has been around since 1986. If he were to win McKinney would be the second Alabama defensive back to take home the award joining Antonio Langham and Minkah Fitzpatrick.
McKinney goes into the 2019 season as Alabama’s leader in the secondary and among the best safeties in all of college football. He had a breakout 2018 campaign as he accumulated 73 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
