ACC Boasts Seven Defensive Standouts on 2025 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List

Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

Football
July 29, 2025

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Seven standout defenders from the Atlantic Coast Conference have been named to the 2025 Bronko Nagurski Trophy preseason watch listing, it was introduced by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) on Tuesday. The award acknowledges the most effective defensive participant in faculty soccer.
 
The watch listing contains 21 linebackers, 11 defensive ends/edge rushers, 10 cornerbacks, 10 defensive tackles and eight safeties.
 
The FWAA and the Charlotte Touchdown Club will announce 4 finalists for the 2025 Bronko Nagurski Trophy in mid-to-late November, and the winner can be revealed on the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet on December 8 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
 
Players could also be added or faraway from the watch listing all through the season. As in earlier years, the FWAA will announce a Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week every Tuesday this season. If not already on the watch listing, every week’s honored participant can be added at the moment.
 
ACC Players Named to the 2025 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Preseason Watch List
Name, School, Position
T.J. Parker, Clemson, DE
Avieon Terrell, Clemson, CB
Peter Woods, Clemson, DT
Chandler Rivers, Duke, CB
Rueben Bain Jr., Miami, DE
Kyle Louis, Pitt, LB
Isaiah Nwokobia, SMU, S
 
The FWAA All-America Committee, after voting enter from the affiliation’s full membership, selects a 26-man All-America Team and finally the Bronko Nagurski Trophy finalists. Committee members, by particular person poll, choose the winner they regard as the most effective defensive participant in faculty soccer.
 
The FWAA has chosen a National Defensive Player of the Year since 1993. In 1995, the FWAA named the award in honor of the legendary two-way participant from the University of Minnesota. Nagurski dominated faculty soccer, then turned a star for skilled soccer’s Chicago Bears within the Thirties. Bronislaw “Bronko” Nagurski is a constitution member of each the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
 
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses faculty soccer’s most prestigious awards. The NCFAA’s 25 awards have honored greater than 950 recipients since 1935.