Utah football's John Henry Daley named quarterfinalist for national award

Utes defensive end leads the FBS in sacks

Utah Utes defensive end John Henry Daley (90) celebrates his sack in the first quarter against the Wyoming Cowboys at Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The midseason accolades continued to roll in for Utah defensive end John Henry Daley following a productive start to the 2025 campaign.

Two weeks after being nominated for the Chuck Bednarik Award, Daley was tabbed as a quarterfinalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy on Thursday.

The Lott Trophy, named after NFL Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, is awarded annually to college football's top defensive player with the biggest impact on his team, both on and off the field. The acronym IMPACT stands for integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity.

Through the Utes' first six games of the season, Daley has exhibited several of those characteristics on the field. The sophomore heads into Week 8 tied for third in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 8.0 sacks and leads the Big 12 with 11.0 tackles for loss. He's the only player in the conference with 1.0 or more sacks in five games.

Sep 20, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders running back Cameron Dickey (8) runs the ball against Utah Utes defensive end John Henry Daley (90) during the fourth quarter at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Daley also ranks at the top of the Big 12 in forced fumbles (2) after becoming the first Utah player since 2017 with strip sacks in back-to-back games (at Wyoming on Sept. 13 and home against Texas Tech on Sept. 20). The following week in Morgantown, West Virginia, he set a new career benchmark with seven tackles in the Utes' 48-14 win over the Mountaineers.

Daley paces Utah with 30 tackles.

"Nobody loves football more than John Henry Daley," said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham during a press conference on Sept. 8. "He's the same way at practice every day. He's excited about practice, he's upbeat. He's a great leader for us, and he has really developed over the course of the last year into a really good player."

The winner of the Lott Trophy, selected by a national voter panel consisting of former winners, members of the media, coaches and members of the Board of Directors of the IMPACT Foundation, will be announced in December.

Should Daley continue to earn national recognition with a strong finish to the season, he could become the third player from the Utes to be named a finalist for the prestigious award since 2021. Devin Lloyd (2021) and Jonah Elliss (2023) are the only two Utes since 2004 to be named finalists for the Lott Trophy.

Daley will be in the spotlight Saturday when Utah travels down to Provo, Utah, to battle BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The Alpine, Utah, native played for the Cougars in 2023 before transferring ahead of the 2024 season.