BATON ROUGE — LSU’s All-America free safety LaRon Landry is one of 33 players from across the nation named to the preseason watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award, the Jim Thorpe Association announced.
The Thorpe Award is presented annually to the top defensive back in college football. The nominees will be trimmed to 10 in early November with the winner being announced on ESPN in December.
By making the Thorpe Award watch list, Landry has now been nominated for three national awards heading into the 2006 season. Landry is also on the watch list for the Bednarik Trophy and the Nagurski Trophy.
Landry, a senior from Ama, La., has been named to numerous preseason All-America teams going into the 2006 season. Landry enters his fourth season as a starter in the secondary for the Tigers and he has tallied 241 career tackles to go with 12.5 sacks and nine interceptions. Dating back to the 2003 season, Landry has started in 35 straight games.
Landry earned third-team All-America honors from the Associated Press following the 2005 season as well as being a first-team all-conference pick. He was named second-team All-SEC in both 2003 and 2004.
2006 Thorpe Award Watch List
Name, School Class Pos.
Fred Bennett, S. Carolina Sr CB
Joe Burnett, UCF So CB
Bobby Blackshire, Tulsa Sr FS
Antoine Cason, Arizona Jr CB
Zach Cantanese, Arizona State Sr S
Marquice Cole, Northwestern Sr CB
Joe Garcia, Nevada Sr CB
Josh Gattis, Wake Forest Sr FS
Nick Graham, Tulsa Sr CB
Michael Griffin, Texas Sr SS
Leon Hall, Michigan Sr CB
Marcus Hamilton, Virginia Sr CB
Daymeion Hughes, California Sr CB
David Irons, Auburn Sr CB
LaRon Landry, LSU Sr FS
Marcus McCanley, Fresno State Sr CB
Brandon Meriweather, Miami (FL) Sr SS
J.D. Nelson, Oregon Sr FS
David Overstreet, Missouri Sr FS
Sabby Piscitelli, Oregon State Sr SS
Kenny Phillips, Miami (FL) So SS
Darrelle Revis, Pittsburgh Jr CB
Anthony Reddick Miami (FL) Jr FS
Roderick Rogers, Wisconsin Sr FS
Reggie Smith, Oklahoma So CB
Wesley Smith, Memphis Sr FS
John Talley, Duke Sr CB
Eric Weddle, Utah Sr SS
John Wending, Wyoming Sr FS
Eric Wicks, West Virginia Sr SS
C.J. Wilson, Baylor Sr CB
Tom Zbikowski, Notre Dame Jr SS