K-State football senior safety Dante Barnett has earned the program’s first preseason honor Friday, being named to the Lott IMPACT Trophy watch list, the award’s foundation announced.
Barnett is the fourth Wildcat to be honored as a candidate for the award (Arthur Brown, 2012; Ty Zimmerman, 2013; Ryan Mueller, 2014) and one of seven Big 12 representatives named to the shortlist Friday.
The trophy is awarded annually to a player who “demonstrate(s) excellence in the field of athletics and recognizes college football’s Defensive Player of the Year who best exemplifies the IMPACT acronym: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity,” according to the Lott IMPACT Trophy website.