The national preseason award watch lists are starting to hit.
On Monday, the Maxwell Football Club of Philadelphia (Pa.) announced its watch list for the 2020 Chuck Bednarik Award and two University of Alabama student-athletes were named.
Dylan Moses and Patrick Surtain II were recognized, as both players enter their junior seasons hopefully in the fall.
The 2020 Chuck Bednarik Award watch list has dropped! pic.twitter.com/IVCJrjhRhi
— Maxwell Football (@MaxwellFootball) July 13, 2020
Moses, a native of Baton Rouge, La., earned a medical redshirt after missing all of the 2019 campaign with a serious knee injury.
Prior to that, the former five-star was a finalist for the Dick Butkus Award in 2018 and made the All-Freshman team for the Southeastern Conference in 2017.
The 6-foot-2, 235-pounder has totaled 116 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and one interception in 26 career games.
He is looking forward to guiding Alabama’s defense back to being among the elite groups in college football.
Surtain, a native of Plantation, Fla., had a good sophomore year but he’s expected to be a huge leader in the upcoming season. He recorded 42 tackles, eight pass breakups and two interceptions last season; however, Surtain also had some tackling and coverage issues.
Like Moses, Surtain arrived as a five-star athlete in 2018 and has the National Football League pedigree – seeing how his father, Patrick Surtain Sr., played 11 years with the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs.
Through 28 games, Surtain has 79 tackles, 15 breakups and three interceptions.
He is working on being a shutdown cornerback.
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Since 1995, the Chuck Bednarik Award is presented to college football’s defensive player of the year.
Former Tide standouts Jonathan Allen and Minkah Fitzpatrick were recipients of the honor in 2016 and 2017. Both players went on to be first-round picks in their respective draft classes.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
