NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt football student-athlete Bryan Longwell was named to the Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List on Monday, making the junior linebacker a candidate for the honor presented annually to the most outstanding defensive player in college football.
He is coming off a season in which he led the Commodores with 89 total tackles, which included 7½ for loss, while adding an interception and four other passes broken up. The Nashville native was credited with double-digit stops in three games against nationally-ranked opponents last fall highlighted by a career-best 12 at Missouri, with 2½ of those recorded behind the line of scrimmage. Longwell also finished with 11 tackles in Vandy’s match-up with Texas and 10 in the regular-season finale against Tennessee.
In all, he paced the Dores in stops on three occasions including when he had eight in a victory over No. 1 Alabama, and he made nine tackles—one shy of sharing team-high honors—in victories over Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech at the Birmingham Bowl in the first and last contests of the campaign as well.
Longwell and the Commodores are slated to face Charleston Southern in their season opener at FirstBank Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 30. More information can be found here for all season ticket, mini-plan and single-game ticket options for the 2025 season.