Football Notre Dame recruits well-represented on Butkus Award watch list — sort of

[Eric Hansen]

Fifty-one players were named Thursday to the Butkus Award preseason high school watch list. At least one of them is a college freshman, that being Notre Dame linebacker Preston Zinter. I've notified the Butkus folks, so they can fix that and also correct their listings of ND recruits Bodie Kahoun and Kingstonn Viliamu-Asa, listed as Bodie Calhoun and Viliamu-Asa Kyngstonn, respectively. ND defensive end recruit Bryce Young, who had been an outside linebacker, also made the list. Four players who eventually signed with Notre Dame have won the award, which recognizes the nation's top high school linebacker and was first given out after the 2008 season — All-Americans Manti Te'o and Jaylon Smith, Prince Kollie — now a junior at Vanderbilt, and freshman Drayk Bowen.

2023 BUTKUS AWARD® HIGH SCHOOL PRESEASON WATCH LIST

Jeremiah Beasley, Bellville, Mich. (Belleville)
Ja’Qualin Birdsong, LaGrange, Ga. (Troup County)
Jaylen Boardley, Texarkana, Texas (Pleasant Grove)
Sammy Brown, Jefferson, Ga. (Jefferson)
Cam Buffington, Winfield, Iowa (Mount Union)
Bodie Calhoun (Bodie Kahoun), Roanoke, Va. (Patrick Henry)
TJ Capers, Miami, Fla. (Christopher Columbus)
Aaron Chiles, Olney, Md. (Our Lady of Good Counsel)
Fred Clark, Winona, Miss. (Winona)
Kolaj Cobbins, Destrehan, La. (Destrehan)
Chris Cole, Salem, Va. (Salem)
Mason Curtis, Nashville, Tenn. (The Ensworth School)
Frank Cusano, Granite Bay, Calif. (Granite Bay)
Sterling Dixon, Mobile, Ala. (Mobile Christian)
Myles Graham, College Park, Ga. (Woodward Academy)
Wendell Gregory, Marietta, Ga. (Walton)
Zavier Hamilton, Navarre, Fla. (Navarre)
Adarius Hayes, Largo, Fla. (Largo)
Rodney Hill, Bunnell, Fla. (Flagler Palm Coast)
Andrew Hines, College Park, Ga. (Woodward)
Kari Jackson, West Bloomfield, Mich. (West Bloomfield)
Cayden Jones, Arden, N.C. (Christ School)
Kristopher Jones, Fairfax, Va. (Fairfax)
Viliamu-Asa Kyngstonn (Kygnstonn Viliamu-Asa) , Bellflower, Calif. (St. John Bosco)
Melvin Laster, Liberty, Mo. (Liberty North)
Cameron Lindsey, Aliquippa, Pa. (Aliquippa)
Jordan Lockhart, Bellflower, Calif. (St. John Bosco)
William Love, Camden, N.J. (Eastside)
Jeremiah Marcelin, Miami, Fla. (Norland)
Willis McGahee IV, Miami, Fla. (Columbus)
Booker Pickett Jr., Tampa, Fla. (Wharton)
Payton Pierce, Allen, Texas (Lovejoy)
Brayden Platt, Yelm, Wash. (Yelm)
Demarcus Riddick, Clanton, Ala. (Chilton County}
Preston Ries, Monticello, Iowa (Monticello Community)
Jayshawn Ross, Kansas City, Mo. (Liberty North)
Bradley Shaw, Birmingham, Ala. (Hoover)
Colin Simmons, Duncanville, Texas (Duncanville)
Tylen Singleton, Many, La. (Many)
Montrez Smith, Carrollton, Ga. (Carrollton)
Tyanthony Smith, Jasper, Texas (Jasper)
Anthony Speca, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Pittsburgh Catholic)
Edward Spillman, Nashville, Tenn. (David Academy)
Garrett Stover, Sunbury, Ohio (Big Walnut)
Derek Weisskopf, Williamsburg, Iowa (Williamsburg)
Maurice Williams Jr., Pearland, Texas (Shadow Creek)
Gabriel Williams, Baltimore, Md. (Saint Vincent Pallotti)
Dylan Williams, Long Beach, Calif. (Poly)
Ashton Woods, Marietta, Ga. (Walton)
Bryce Young, Charlotte, N.C. (Charlotte Christian)
Preston Zinter, Lawrence, Mass. (Central Catholic)

ALL-TIME BUTKUS AWARD® HIGH SCHOOL RECIPIENTS

2008: Manti Te’o, Punahou (Honolulu, Hawaii)
2009: Jordan Hicks, Lakota West (West Chester, Ohio)
2010: Tony Steward, Menendez (St. Augustine, Fla.)
2011: Noor Davis, Leesburg (Leesburg, Fla.)
2012: Jaylon Smith, Bishop Luers (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
2013: Raekwon McMillan, Liberty County (Hinesville, Ga.)
2014: Malik Jefferson, Ralph H. Poteet (Mesquite, Texas)
2015: Caleb Kelly, Clovis West (Clovis, Calif.)
2016: Dylan Moses, IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.)
2017: Solomon Tuliaupupu, Mater Dei (Claremont, Calif.)
2018: Nakobe Dean, Horn Lake (Horn Lake, Miss.)
2019: Justin Flowe, Upland (Upland, Calif.)
2020: Prince Kollie, David Crockett (Jonesborough, Tenn.)
2021: Shawn Murphy, Unity Reed (Manassas, Va.)
2022: Drayk Bowen, Andrean (Merrillville, Ind.)