For the second-straight year, a Georgia football defensive player takes home an individual award. Last year, Roquan Smith claimed the Butkus Award. This year, cornerback Deandre Baker earned the Jim Thorpe Award, presented annually to the best defensive back in the nation.
Baker didn’t win the award for anything he did this season, rather he won it because of what he didn’t do. And what he didn’t do is get beat. All year-long, he covered the best receiver on the opposing side, and each week he shut them down, starting with South Carolina’s Deebo Samuel in the second week of the season.