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Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. and Georgia’s Jordan Davis were named among the finalists for the Defensive Player of the Year award, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, alongside Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux.
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been awarded to the top defensive player in college football by the Football Writers Association of America since 1993. The award is named after Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski who played for the University of Minnesota and the Chicago Bears.
The FWAA describes Anderson this way: Anderson is versatile in “affecting the quarterback,” a non-statistical term but a favorite of head coach Nick Saban when talking with the media. A beast in the backfield, he leads the nation in sacks (12.5) and tackles for loss (23.0) and has been credited by the Alabama coaching staff with a team-high 34 quarterback pressures. Only Derrick Thomas (1987-88) and Wallace Gilberry (2007) have better single-season sack and TFL numbers in Crimson Tide history.
Davis is known for being the most dominant defensive tackle in college football for top-ranked Georgia (10-0). Davis first garnered attention in Week 1 when he earned the Bronko Nagurski National Player of the Week honor with three tackles and a sack as Georgia held Clemson to two rushing yards in a 10-3 win. Double-teamed and avoided in the middle, Davis’ 23 tackles and 3.5 sacks don’t pop off the stat sheet. But nobody has been able to run past Davis and the attention he commands opens opportunities for other players, as linebackers Nakobe Dean and Channing Tindall and safety Lewis Cine are each having All-America caliber seasons.
Defensive standouts from three @CFBPlayoff contenders – @AlabamaFTBL, @GeorgiaFootball and @OregonFootball – are named finalists by @TheFWAA and @CTouchdownClub for the 2021 Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the national defensive player of the year. https://t.co/xN8u4szQMn pic.twitter.com/jBDqVVaLMH
— Nagurski Trophy (@NagurskiTrophy) November 17, 2021
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
