New Haven, Conn.----- San Jose State University defensive lineman Cade Hall is one of 35 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) players named to the 2021 Walter Camp Player of the Year Award watch list by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
Hall earned his spot on the watch list after receiving a 2020 Walter Camp Football Foundation second-team All-America honor for a superb season of 10.0 quarterback sacks in seven games as San Jose State won the Mountain West, finished with a 7-1 overall win-loss record, and posted .875 winning percentage – third best in school history.
Going into his fourth college season, the 6-foot-3, 270-pound lineman also was the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year and the Mountain West championship football game's Defensive Most Valuable Player to go along with his Walter Camp All-America recognition in 2020.
Hall is the first San Jose State player named to a Walter Camp Player of the Year watch list. Of the 35 players on the 2021 watch list, only 10 are on the defensive side of the ball. Hall is one of five defensive linemen among the ten defensive players.
"We are proud to continue the great work of Walter Camp and recognize the best college football players in the nation," Foundation president Mario Coppola said. "This 'watch list' is a great start to what is shaping up to be another exciting year of college football."
In mid-November, 10 semifinalists will be named. The winner will be announced on the Home Depot College Football Awards program televised by ESPN, Thursday, December 9. The award recipient will receive his trophy at the 55th annual Walter Camp football awards banquet on January 15, 2022 in New Haven, Conn.
For Hall, the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award watch list is his latest major preseason honor. Recently, he was named the Mountain West's preseason Defensive Player of the Year, to the Bednarik Award and Nagurski Trophy watch lists, and to All-America teams by college football publications.
Since 1967, the Walter Camp Football Foundation has named a Player of the Year making it the fourth oldest college football award.
The Walter Camp awards program is named in honor of "The Father of American football," a former Yale University athlete and the university's first football coach. He also is credited with selecting the first All-America football team in 1899.