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Ducks senior inside linebacker Troy Dye has been named to the Butkus Award watchlist
Oregon linebacker Troy Dye on Butkus award watch list https://t.co/6OPtJzTfjn pic.twitter.com/HvJhEnByjo
— Oregonian Sports (@OregonianSports) July 22, 2019
The Butkus Award is given to the nation’s best linebacker every year and is named for one of the best and fearsome linebackers of all time, Dick Butkus.
Last year’s winner, Devin White from LSU was taken with the fifth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Dye joins Tony Fields II (Arizona), Nate Landman (Colorado), Colin Schooler (Arizona), Davion Taylor (Colorado), and Evan Weaver (Cal) in representing the Pac-12.
You can find the full list of nominees here.
Any of these Pac-12 nominees winning the award would be bucking the trend as only four have won the award since 1985. Only one has won this decade, with Eric Kendricks of UCLA winning in 2014.
Dye’s chances aren’t that good to become the first Duck to win the award as the field is dominated by the southern part of the United States.
Good luck Troy!