Colorado Buffaloes senior Nate Landman is one of 98 players nationally on the watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy presented by LendingTree, the Football Writers Association of America and Charlotte Touchdown Club announced Tuesday.
The award is given to the nation’s top defensive player, picked from a group of five finalists that are narrowed down after the selection of the FWAA All-America team.
Landman, who was on the watch list last season for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, becomes the first CU player to earn a mention on the watch list twice. Landman would be the first CU player to win the award. Beginning in 1993, CU’s lone semifinalist for the award was Matt Russell in 1996, the same year he won the Butkus Award.
This is the fourth watch list for Landman, having been named to the Butkus Award watch list on Monday and the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list last week. In June, he was named to the Lott IMPACT Trophy watch list. He was named third-team Preseason All-America by Phil Steele, which also named him first-team Preseason All-Pac-12 along with Athlon.
