This Gator named to Butkus Award preseason watch list
Florida football redshirt senior linebacker Ventrell Miller has been named to the Butkus Award’s preseason watch list.
The Butkus Award is assigned annually to the nation’s best linebacker. Since its inception in 1985, it has been given to 36 different players, with Oklahoma‘s Brian Bosworth the award’s only multiple-time winner (1985 & 1986).
The watch list includes 51 different players, honoring Dick Butkus’s number during his playing days. Miller is among 12 players from the SEC named to the watch list, the most of any conference in the nation. The only Florida Gator player on the list, Miller is looking to become the first player in Florida football history to win the Butkus award.
The Butkus Award committee will announce its semi-finalists on October 31 with the finalists named on November 21; the winner will be announced on or before December 7. Typically, the award is announced live at the College Football Awards Show in December. Appearing on the watch list is not a requirement to win the award.
Former Gator and current Utah Ute Mohamoud Diabate was also named to the watch list. Diabate transferred to Utah this offseason after Billy Napier replaced Dan Mullen as head coach of the Florida Gators. Diabate will return to Gainesville to make his Utah debut on September 3 at 7 p.m. EDT on ESPN as both the Utes and the Gators will open the season on primetime television.
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