College football has many national awards for individual athletes.
Some of the biggest honors include the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Doak Walker Award, Fred Biletnikoff Award, Dick Butkus Award, Chuck Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Award, and Jim Thorpe Award. For defensive players, the Butkus, Bednarik, Nagurski, and Thorpe awards are the most prized ones. Linebackers benefit from one of the four; however, the others can do to any defensive position. At the University of Alabama, no true sophomore has ever won national honors on defense.
Derrick Thomas, Rolando McClain, C.J. Mosley, and Reuben Foster all won the Butkus Award as upperclassmen.