Owen Chambliss earns spot on 2026 Butkus Award Watch List
Nebraska junior linebacker Owen Chambliss was named Thursday to the 51-man preseason watch list for the Butkus Award. This is his first year with the Huskers after two seasons at San Diego State and one at Utah.
Chambliss transferred to Nebraska after an all-conference 2025 season at San Diego State. He led the Aztecs with 110 tackles, including 9½ for loss and four sacks. The SDSU defense ranked 12th nationally in yards allowed and seventh in scoring defense.
The award goes to the nation’s top college linebacker, and the winner does not need to be one of the 51 on the preseason list. Semifinalists will be announced Oct. 28, finalists on Nov. 20, and the winner during the week of Dec. 7.
Chambliss, a native of Corona, Calif., is one of 12 Big Ten linebackers on the watch list.
The watch list
- Xe’ree Alexander, Washington
- Xavier Atkins, Auburn
- Maverick Baranowski, Minnesota
- Rasheem Biles, Texas
- Troy Bowles, Michigan
- Drayk Bowen, Notre Dame
- Sammy Brown, Clemson
- Taye Brown, Arizona
- Gary Bryant, Syracuse
- Amare Campbell, Tennessee
- Arion Carter, Tennessee
- Owen Chambliss, Nebraska
- Chris Cole, Georgia
- Ray Coney, Texas A&M
- Jeremy Culbreath, Central Florida
- John Curry, Texas Tech
- TJ Dottery, LSU
- Kooper Ebel, Penn State
- Jaxton Eck, New Mexico
- Kyle Efford, Georgia Tech
- Myles Graham, Florida
- Jordan Hall, Michigan State
- Rolijah Hardy, Indiana
- Owen Heineke, Oklahoma
- Isaiah Jones, Indiana
- Gideon Lampron, Colorado
- Trey Lathan, Kansas
- Liona Lefau, Colorado
- Kip Lewis, Oklahoma
- Owen Long, Arizona State
- Braylan Lovelace, Pittsburgh
- Luke Mergot, Duke
- Jayden Montgomery, Iowa
- Blayne Myrick, Miami-Ohio
- Sammy Omosigho, UCLA
- Mason Posa, Wisconsin
- Ben Roberts, Texas Tech
- Kam Robinson, Virginia
- Austin Romaine, Texas Tech
- Matt Rose, Stanford
- Peyton Seelman, North Carolina
- Keaton Thomas, Mississippi
- Jonathan Thompson, Cincinnati
- Mohamed Toure, Miami-Fla.
- Cade Uluave, BYU
- Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Notre Dame
- Whit Weeks, LSU
- Ethan Wesloski, Oklahoma State
- Raylen Wilson, Georgia
- Daniel Wingate, Maryland
- Caleb Woodson, Alabama