Gator Country

Florida junior Matt Elam during the Gators' 31-17 win against the Vanderbilt Commodores on Oct. 13 at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, Tenn. / Gator Country photo by Saj Guevara

Florida Gators safety Matt Elam’s performance through the first seven games has been incredible and the Maxwell Football Club has taken notice.

The club added Elam to the watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award on Wednesday. The award has been given annually to the top defense players since 1995.

Elam was one of four players added to the list of 65. He’s the second Gators’ player up for the Bendarik Award as defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd was named to the watch list in the preseason.

Elam, a junior from Palm Beach Gardens, is second on the team with 39 tackles, including four for a loss. He has a sack, a fumble recovery, an interception and a pair of pass breakups.

The winner of the Bednarik Award will be announced on Dec. 6 as part of the ESPNU College Football Awards Show. Semifinalists will be named on Oct. 29, followed by three finalists being named on Nov. 19.

No. 2 Florida (7-0, 6-0) plays No. 10 Georgia (6-1, 4-1) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.

Several Florida Gators football players have been nominated for postseason awards. Here’s the updated list of those players and the dates of when awards will be announced:

Bronko Nagurski Trophy — Dec. 3 — Sharrif Floyd, Matt Elam
Butkus Award — Dec. 4 — Jon Bostic, Jelani Jenkins
Rotary Lombardi Award — Dec. 5 — Sharrif Floyd, Jon Bostic, Jelani Jenkins
Chuck Bednarik Award — Dec. 6 — Sharrif Floyd, Matt Elam
John Mackey Award — Dec. 6 — Jordan Reed
Lou Groza Award — Dec. 6 — Caleb Sturgis
Outland Trophy — Dec. 6 — Sharrif Floyd
Jim Thorpe — Dec. 6 — Matt Elam
Biletnikoff Award — Dec. 6 — Andre Debose
Maxwell Award — Dec. 6 — Mike Gillislee
Rimington Trophy — Jan. 12 — Jonotthan Harrison
Paul Hornung Award — TBD — Trey Burton

About the author

MikeCapshaw

Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting.

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