STATESBORO - Georgia Southern senior cornerback
Kindle Vildor has been named to the 25th Annual Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List, as announced Monday by The Maxwell Football Club. The Club also announced its watch list for The Maxwell Award, named in honor of Robert W. "Tiny" Maxwell, which has been given to America's College Player of the Year since 1937.
The Bednarik Award has been presented to the College Defensive Player of the Year since 1995. Chuck Bednarik, former standout at Penn and with the Philadelphia Eagles, is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame's Class of 1969 and the NFL Hall of Fame's Class of 1967.
Vildor, from College Park, Georgia, was a second-team All-American a year ago by Pro Football Focus and is graded as the No. 2 cornerback in the country by PFF heading into the 2019 season. He was named the Sun Belt Player of the Year by Pro Football Focus and earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors from the league, Pro Football Focus, Phil Steele and Southern Pigskin. He was on the field for 831 total plays, talying 42 tackles on the season, including 4.5 for loss. He led the team with four interceptions and also had a team-high 11 pass breakups.
The watch lists will once again incorporate a broad spectrum of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs and conferences from coast to coast. The Chuck Bednarik Award watch list features fresh faces, as 2018 winner Josh Allen (Kentucky) and finalists Quinnen Williams (Alabama) and Christian Wilkins (Clemson) have all moved on to the NFL. The lone returning semifinalist Grant Delpit (LSU) will be joined by a talented group of defensive candidates from conferences across America, with Alabama, Clemson, Colorado, Florida, Fresno State, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Syracuse, TCU, Utah and Utah State all boasting multiple candidates.
Josh Allen, the 2018 Bednarik Award winner, was the first player from the University of Kentucky to win the award. Allen was chosen with the seventh overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Maxwell and Bednarik Awards are members of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. Founded in 1997, the NCFAA and its 25 awards now boast over 800 recipients, dating to 1935. Visit
ncfaa.org to learn more about the association.
The members of the NCFAA are unveiling their preseason watch lists over a 12-day period this month. Seventeen of the association's 25 awards select a preseason watch list and the NCFAA has spearheaded a coordinated effort to promote each award's preseason candidates.
Following is the entire 2019 preseason watch list calendar:
Monday, July 15: Bednarik Award / Maxwell Award
Tuesday, July 16: Davey O'Brien Award
Wednesday, July 17: Doak Walker Award
Thursday, July 18: Biletnikoff Award
Friday, July 19: Mackey Award & Rimington Award
Monday, July 22: Thorpe Award & Butkus Award
Tuesday, July 23: Outland Trophy & Nagurski Award
Wednesday, July 24: Groza Award & Ray Guy Award
Thursday, July 25: Hornung Award & Wuerffel Trophy
Friday, July 26: Walter Camp Award
Semifinalists for the Maxwell and Bednarik Awards will be announced Oct. 29, 2019, while the three finalists for each award will be unveiled Nov. 25, 2019. The winners of the 2019 Maxwell and Bednarik Awards will be announced as part of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on Dec. 12, 2019. The formal presentations of these awards will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala hosted by Tropicana Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on March 13, 2020.
