By Steve Lansdale
BRUSH PRAIRIE, Wash. — Junior Texas linebacker Malik Jefferson has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2017 Butkus Award, which is given annually by the Butkus Foundation to the nation’s best linebacker.
Former UT star Derrick Johnson won the award in 2004; he and Sergio Kindle (2009) are the only Longhorns ever to be named finalists.
The honor is not the first of the preseason for Jefferson[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)], who also has been named to the preseason watch lists for the Bednarik Award, given annually by the Maxwell Football Club to the nation’s top defensive player, and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Football Writers Association of America’s award to the nation’s premier defensive player.
Jefferson played in 11 games in 2016, starting nine. He finished third on the team with 62 tackles — 42 solo — and added 5.5 sacks, 8.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble. He named second-team All-Big 12 by the Associated Press and was named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award. The year before, he earned freshman All-America recognition from the FWAA, Sporting News and USA Today and was the Big 12’s Defensive Freshman of the Year.
The Butkus Award, which was presented for the first time in 1985, is named after Dick Butkus, the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee who manned the middle of the Chicago Bears’ defense from 1965-73.
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