Indiana Tight End Peyton Hendershot on Mackey Award Watch List

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana tight end Peyton Hendershot has been named to the 2020 Mackey Award watch list.

He’s now the fourth Hoosier to get his name on a watch list, joining Tiawan Mullen, Stevie Scott and Whop Philyor.

It’s been a controversial offseason for Hendershot, who was arrested in February on multiple charges after an incident at his ex-girlfriend's apartment. He was immediately suspended from the team after the arrest.

In June, Hendershot plead guilty to a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge. In connection with a plea deal, three other charges were dropped.

Hendershot was brought back to the program in a “modified” way in April, but now that the team is all on campus and working out together, Tom Allen announced earlier this week that Hendershot is fully back with the team.

“He has completed his team-sanctioned discipline. He has completed the conduct process that we went through for the student conduct as a student-athlete of Indiana University. He completed that. He's closed his matter with the judicial system,” Allen said via Zoom Tuesday morning. “We have a campus committee that determines when a student-athlete is reinstated to their team and to be able to be cleared and that is the case. He's been completely cleared, and he is back with the team now fully as he completed all the things that he was asked to do.”

Last season, Hendershot played in all 13 games for the Hoosiers, and he set the Indiana single-season tight end record with 52 receptions. The 52 receptions ranked him 10th in the Big Ten, and he also had 622 receiving yards with four touchdowns.

On a national scale, Hendershot was tied for fourth among tight ends in catches and he was 10th in yardage. Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 250 pounds, Hendershot is a big, strong target down the field. He also prides himself in blocking.

The John Mackey Award is presented annually to college football's most outstanding tight end. The award was established in 2000 by the Nassau County Sports Commission and it is given to the tight end who best exemplifies the play, sportsmanship, academics and community values of Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey.

All of the watch lists are being announced this week. Here is the entire 2020 preseason watch list calendar:

Monday July 13: Chuck Bednarik Award
Tuesday July 14: Davey O'Brien Award
Wednesday July 15: Doak Walker Award
Thursday July 16: Biletnikoff Award
Friday July 17: Mackey Award
Monday July 20: Jim Thorpe Award
Tuesday July 21: Outland Trophy & Nagurski Award
Wednesday July 22: Groza Award & Ray Guy Award
Thursday July 23: Hornung Award & Wuerffel Trophy
Friday July 24: Maxwell Award

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