Scales Named to Chuck Bednarik Award (Best College Defensive Player) Watch List
/
IU linebacker Tegray Scales is up for the Bednarik Award Image: Cam Koenig HoosierHuddle.com
IU Athletics Release
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana senior linebacker Tegray Scales earned a spot on the 2017 watch list for the 23rd annual Chuck Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Football Club announced today. Scales adds the accolade to his previously announced selection to the 2017 Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List.
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 '69 and the NFL Hall of Fame's Class of '67.
The Lott IMPACT Trophy honors the top defensive player in college football who makes the biggest impact for his team, both on and off the field. The award is given to a distinguished young man who represents the qualities embodied by Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott – Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.
Scales earned second team All-America honors from SI.com in 2016 and became the first Hoosiers linebacker recognized on an All-America team since Van Waiters (3rd team) in 1987.
The 2016 Foster Farms Defensive Player of the Game led the nation with 93 solo stops and 23.5 tackles for loss, and he finished first in the Big Ten with 126 tackles (10th nationally). Scales owns the second spot on the program's single-season TFLs list, shares ninth in total tackles and is ninth with 33.5 career stops for loss.
His nine double-figure tackle games in 2016 led the league and ranked third nationally. Scales added seven sacks, a pick-6 and one forced fumble.
The Cincinnati native put together a streak of six straight, 10-tackle games during the regular season. It was the longest streak nationally, the longest streak in the Big Ten since 2012 and the longest streak at IU since at least 1990.
The Bednarik Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) which encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. The 23 awards boast over 745 years of tradition-selection excellence. Visit www.NCFAA.org to learn more about our story.
The members of the NCFAA are unveiling their preseason watch lists over a 12-day period this month. Seventeen of the association's 23 awards select a preseason watch list and the NCFAA has spearheaded a coordinated effort to promote each award's preseason candidates.
Semifinalists for the Bednarik Award will be announced Oct. 30, 2017, while the three finalists will be unveiled Nov. 20, 2017. The winner of the 2017 Bednarik Award will be announced as part of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on Dec. 7, 2017. The formal presentations of the award will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala hosted by Tropicana Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on March 9, 2018.