Indiana's Andre Carter Named to Bednarik Award Preseason Watch List
Indiana defensive lineman Andre Carter was named to the 2023 Chuck Bednarik Award preseason watch list on Monday.
The award is given each season to the the best defensive player in all of college football. Carter transferred to IU this offseason from Western Michigan, coming off a 2022 season with the Broncos where he recorded 7.0 sacks, an interception and was named to the 2022 All-MAC defensive second team.
Carter is expected to play a major role for the Indiana defense in 2023. He was named one of the team's MVP's of spring practice, and he's been consistently featured on the first-team defense, mixing in at defensive end and defensive tackle.
"He's the biggest, most physical one we've had here since I've been here and very, very disruptive," Allen said in the spring. "We've got to get him in elite shape, he's not there yet. Just really excited about him. He's a great kid. He's bought into everything we're about here ... You can tell what he can do, and so it's about the details of his technique that he'll improve on this summer as well. He's a very good football player, and I'm glad he's with us. Now he's got a chance to prove he belongs in the Big Ten."
The award is named in honor of the legendary Chuck Bednarik, who played football for Penn from 1945-48, and for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1949-62. The Bednarik Award is presented each year by the Maxwell Club.
Carter is one of 15 Big Ten defenders who were named to the 2023 Bednarik Award watch list. Along with Carter, the other Big Ten nominees are:
- Jer'Zhan Newton, DL, Illinois
- Keith Randolph, DL, Illinois
- Cooper DeJean, CB, Iowa
- Jaishawn Barham, LB, Maryland
- Kris Jenkins, DT, Michigan
- Junior Colson, LB, Michigan
- Cal Haladay, LB, Michigan State
- J.T. Tuimoloau, EDGE, Ohio State
- Tommy Eichenberg, LB, Ohio State
- Kalen King, CB, Penn State
- Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State
- Abdul Carter, LB, Penn State
- Aaron Lewis, EDGE, Rutgers
- Maema Njongmeta, LB, Wisconsin
In 2022, the Bednarik Award was won by Alabama's Will Anderson Jr., and the last Big Ten defender to win the award was Ohio State's Chase Young in 2019. Prior to Young, the award has also been won by three different Penn State linebackers in LaVar Arrington, Paul Pozluszny and Dan Connor, with Pozluszny winning the award in back-to-back seasons in 2005 and 2006.
Additionally, when the Bednarik Award was created in 1995, it was originally won by a Big Ten athlete in each of its first three seasons. Northwestern linebacker, and future Northwestern coach, Pat Fitzgerald won the award in both 1995 and 1996, and Michigan's Charles Woodson won the Bednarik in 1997, during the Wolverines' national championship season.
No Indiana football player has ever won the award, though former Hoosier defensive back Tiawan Mullen was named to the preseason watch list three straight times from 2020-22.
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