A Bulldog has been included as a semifinalist for both the 83rd Maxwell Award as the collegiate player of the year and for the 25th Chuck Bednarik Award as the outstanding defensive player of the year, according to an announcement from the Maxwell Football Club.
Junior tailback D’Andre Swift is one of 20 semifinalists for the Maxwell, a list that includes four others from the Southeastern Conference. Graduate safety J.R. Reed has been named as one of 20 semifinalists for the Bednarik. Five others from the league have been included on this list.
Swift, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., is averaging 6.8 yards/carry on 110 attempts for 760 yards and seven touchdowns. Both his yards per carry and rushing yards lead the SEC and his yards per carry ranks ninth nationally. Averaging an SEC-leading 107. 4 yards per game, Swift also has 13 receptions for 148 yards and a score.
Most recently, Swift earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors after carrying the ball 21 times for 179 yards (8.5 average) in the win over Kentucky in the driving rain. This was the highest output for Swift since he piled up a career-high 186 on 17 carries during the win over No. 24 Auburn last year. He now has seven career games with at least 100 yards, including three this year.
Reed, a native of Frisco, Texas, leads the defensive backfield and is third on the team with 34 stops this season, including two tackles for loss. Starting a team-leading 36th straight games, the 2019 Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist forced a fumble in Georgia’s last action that the Bulldogs turned into their second touchdown versus Kentucky in a 21-0 victory.
Reed also collected a loose ball and returned it 14 yards for a touchdown earlier this season against Murray State. He is one of five Bulldogs who has an interception in 2019. Thanks in part to the contributions listed above, Reed has helped lead the Bulldogs to rank first in the SEC in Scoring Defense at 10.6 points/game (No. 5 nationally), Rushing Defense at 85.7 yards/game (No. 5 nationally) and Total Defense at 266.7 yards/game (No. 7 nationally).
Semifinalist voting for both of the collegiate awards will begin on Wednesday and will close on Nov. 24. Three finalists for each award will be announced on Nov. 25 and the second round of voting will take place at that time.
The winners of the Maxwell Award and the Bednarik Award will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show that will be broadcast live on ESPN on Dec. 12. The formal presentation of these awards will be made at the Maxwell Football Club’s Awards Dinner on March 6, 2020, at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Current New York Giant Deandre Baker was the Bulldogs’ last Bednarik Award semifinalist in 2018 while current Cleveland Brown Nick Chubb was the last Georgia player to be included as a Maxwell Award semifinalist in 2017.
Charley Trippi (1946) and Herschel Walker (1982) both won the Maxwell during their time at UGA. David Pollack (2004) collected the Bednarik as a Bulldog.