Cal Football: Camryn Bynum Named to Watch List for Jim Thorpe Award

Senior cornerback is among six Pac-12 players on list for nation's top defensive back

We still don’t know if we will have college football this fall, but there is no stopping the avalanche of preseason award watch lists.

They arrive daily, and one of the latest is the Jim Thorpe Award, which will honor the nation’s top defensive back, even though I’m not certain the versatile Thorpe ever made a name for himself playing corner or safety.

Cal senior cornerback Camryn Bynum, whose name is found on plenty of summertime lists, is among 49 players named to the Thorpe list.

The award is presented by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame -- where Thorpe was born -- and the state is represented by Oklahoma State junior Kolby Harvell-Peel.

Bynum is an experienced, productive player who enters his senior season having started 38 consecutive games, an impressive run of durability in a sport that doesn’t promote that quality.

He earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors from the coaches last season after he totaled 63 tackles, one interception, nine pass breakups and 10 passes defended.

Previously, Bynum was named to the watch list for the Bednarik Award, given to the nation’s top defensive player.

*** Bynum discusses Cal's pass defense in this video:

He also has picked up these various preseason nods: First-team preseason All-Pac-12 (BANG/Jon Wilner, Lindy’s) and second-team preseason All-Pac-12 (Athlon, Phil Steele, Pick Six Previews).

Bynum is among six Pac-12 defensive backs on the Thorpe list, joined by Stanford’s Paulson Adebo, Oregon’s Thomas Graham and Jevon Holland, USC’s Talanoa Hufanga and Washington’s Elijah Molden.

A screening committee consisting of OSHOF members will narrow the field to 10-15 semifinalists on November 2 before the three finalists are selected on November 23. A national panel of more than 250 sportswriters, sportscasters, former players and coaches will vote to determine the winner.

Thorpe is one of the most legendary athletic figures in American history. He became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal when he captured the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Games.

Thorpe, who played running back at Carlisle College, was stripped of his Olympic medals after it was discovered he played semi-pro football, meaning he violated the Olympics’ then-strict amateur code.

He went on to play Major League Baseball and in the NFL and in 1950 was voted by the Associated Press as the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century as well as the greatest professional football player.

In 1982, after a long campaign, Thorpe’s Olympic medals were reinstated by the International Olympic Committee.

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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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