By Melville Van Buren
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Bednarik Award is bestowed upon the nation’s best collegiate defensive player and Indiana football’s redshirt senior Andre Carter is among the preseason candidates for the award.
Carter enters his first season in Bloomington after five seasons at Western Michigan that included 47 games played. The defensive lineman produced 132 tackles, which included 28.0 tackles for loss with 12.5 of those sacks. In his career, he has one interception, three pass deflections and five forced fumbles. He posted at least 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in three of the last four seasons.
His 2022 season featured 68 stops, 13.5 TFLs and 7.0 sacks. He added one interception, three pass deflections and two forced fumbles. His 2019 and 2021 seasons each included 20-plus tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 13 and 12 games, respectively.
The Bednarik Award has been presented to the College Defensive Player of the Year since 1994 and is named in honor of Chuck “Concrete Charlie” Bednarik who was an All-American player at the University of Pennsylvania and later a multiple year All-Pro linebacker and center for the Philadelphia Eagles. He is a member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame and was the last NFL player to be a full-time player on both offense and defense.
The Chuck Bednarik Award has once again partnered with Pro Football Focus (PFF) and Phil Steele Publications as selection committee partners. PFF provides detailed metrics and performance-based assessments to selection committee staff, with several senior PFF analysts are members of our selection committee. Phil Steele’s College Football Preview is generally recognized as the most complete preseason magazine.
Semifinalists for the Chuck Bednarik Award will be announced November 13, 2023, while the three finalists for the Bednarik Award will be unveiled November 28, 2023. The winners of the 29th Chuck Bednarik Award will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on December 7, 2023. The formal presentations of the Chuck Bednarik Award will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards in March 2024.
The Maxwell Football Club was founded in 1935 and is the oldest football organization of its kind in America. The Club recognizes excellence in performance at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of the game. The Maxwell Club is also deeply involved and fully vested in the community through programs to promote academic excellence, community volunteerism, and leadership. High school student-athletes around the country have an opportunity to participate in MFC Showcase events, free of charge, through the generosity of our corporate partners, Montage Mountain Resorts, the Buccini Polin Group, the ETC Foundation and the Run Around Inc. To learn more about our story visit www.maxwellfootballclub.org.
COURTESY INDIANA ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
