Penn State Football: Gross-Matos Named to Hendricks Award Watch List

Another day, another spot on an award watch list for Penn State football’s Yetur Gross-Matos.

The Nittany Lion defensive end was named on Tuesday to the Ted Hendricks Award preseason watch list. The honor is awarded annually to college football’s best defensive end.

Now entering his junior year, Gross-Matos is one of Penn State football’s biggest stars. The defensive standout led the Nittany Lions with eight sacks and 20 tackles-for-loss in 2018. He also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors from the conference’s media in 2018 and was named a 2019 Big Ten preseason honoree earlier this summer.

This is not the first preseason award watch list Gross-Matos has landed on so far. He was nominated for the Nagurski Trophy, which is  given to the best defensive player in college football, alongside linebacker Micah Parsons and defensive tackle Robert Windsor. Gross-Matos is also on a preseason watch list for the Bednarik Award, which is also awarded to the best defensive player in college football each year.

Heading into 2019, Gross-Matos is poised to help lift the Nittany Lions defensive front seven to lofty heights. Only time will tell how many awards Penn State football racks up once the dust settles.