LARAMIE, Wyo. — After a stellar 2022 season in which UW Cowboys linebacker Easton Gibbs delivered one of the best performances in program history, preseason honors and recognitions have been rolling in for him as the 2023 season looms. That continued this week, as the Maxwell Football Club named Gibbs to the watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award.
The Bednarik Award is one of several awards honoring the player deemed to be the top defensive player in the country.
Gibbs was recently named the 2023 Mountain West Preseason Defensive Player of the Year in voting by conference media. He has also been named a Preseason First Team All-Conference selection by MW media, Athlon Sports and Phil Steele.
As a sophomore in 2022, Gibbs was named First Team All-Mountain West. A Temecula, California, native, Gibbs ranked third in the conference and 22nd nationally in tackles for the season, averaging 9.3 per game. He ultimately finished the season with 121 tackles, making him just the 61st Cowboy in the 126-year history of the program to record 100 tackles in a single season.
Established in 1994, the Chuck Bednarik Award is named for Chuck “Concrete Charlie” Bednarik, who was an All-American player at the University of Pennsylvania and later an All-Pro linebacker and center for the Philadelphia Eagles. He is a member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame and was the last NFL player to be a full-time player on both offense and defense.
