Bears Doyle, Ika Land On Nagurski Watch List
The Football Writers Association of America announced Tuesday that Baylor Bears stars Dillon Doyle and Siaki Ika are among the players featured on the Nagurski Award watch list.
The Nagurski annually goes to college football's best defensive player.
Doyle has established himself as one of the best linebackers in the Big 12 conference since transferring from Iowa, earning an All-Big 12 honorable mention in 2020 and 2021. Going into his senior season, Doyle was recently named a preseason All-Big 12 pick.
Since putting on a Bears uniform for the first time in 2020, Doyle has started all 23 games, with 147 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss in green and gold. He also became a bit player on offense, scoring a touchdown on the ground and through the air against BYU in 2021.
Ika is building off a stellar season in 2021, where he got national recognition along with winning the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and second-team all-conference.
The hype around Ika goes further than the Nagurski watch list, as he is a preseason All-Big 12 and All-American. On top of smothering the opponents' pass protection, Ika recorded four sacks and six tackles for loss last season.
The bigger the games got, so did Ika's performance. In the Big 12 Championship game, he set a career-high with four tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Ika set a new career high in tackles the very next game in the Bears' win over Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.
Ika was also named to the Outland Trophy watch list, which is awarded to the nation's best interior lineman.
No Bear has ever won the Nagurski Award, with the last Big 12 winner being Texas' Brian Orakpo in 2008.
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Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.