Wake Forest Football: Basham leads Wake Forest on National Watch Lists

The 2020 college football season is (maybe?) approaching, and that means its award watch list season.

Several of Wake’s players have been named to watch lists, but none more than senior DE Carlos Basham Jr., who has been named to three national defensive player of the year lists. Basham is currently on the watch list for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, awarded to the nation’s best defensive player in character and performance; the Chuck Bednarik Award, awarded to the nations best defensive player by the Maxwell Football Club; and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, also awarded to the nation’s best defensive player per the FWAA. He was also on Bruce Feldman’s list of 2020 Football Freaks. It’s nice to see Basham, who was 15th in the nation in sacks last season, getting some much deserved recognition as one of the nation’s best defensive players.

Joining Basham on the watch lists are:

• Sage Surratt, Biletnikoff Award, nation’s best WR
• Brandon Chapman, Mackey Award, nation’s best TE
• Kenneth Walker III, Doak Walker Award, nation’s best RB
• Nick Sciba, Groza Award, nation’s best kicker

Per the Wake Forest Football twitter account, the Deacs were the only team in the ACC with a player on each of these nation award watch lists.

That is a pretty incredible accomplishment, and is a testament to Head Coach Dave Clawson’s ability to recruit and develop players at Wake Forest. Hopefully, in the coming days we get an idea of what football is going to look like this season, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled hype.