On Wednesday, the Lombardi Award Committee announced its four finalists for the 2024 Lombardi Award. Penn State standout defensive end Abdul Carter was named. He is joined by Texas tackle Kelvin Banks, Jr., LSU tackle Will Campbell, and South Carolina EDGE Kyle Kennard. The four finalists were chosen from the 90-man preseason watchlist where 18 Big Ten players were initially named.
The four were chosen because they “Embody the core values of the Lombardi Award.” Those values are character, discipline, and excellence, both on and off the field. This year is the 51st anniversary of the award and the winner will be announced on December 11.
In terms of the current makeup of the Big Ten, 21 winners have come from the conference (10 winners played in the schools’ previous conferences). Carter looks to become the third Nittany Lion to take home the award, joining Bruce Clark in 1978 and Carl Nassib in 2015.
Penn State’s Abdul Carter is a Lombardi Award Finalist
Carter has been a menace for the Penn State defense for three years now. After two years as an off-ball linebacker, he made the transition to edge rusher. The move has yielded incredible results for both Carter and the Nittany Lions.
In 26 games as a freshman and sophomore linebacker, Carter totaled 10 tackles for loss and 11 sacks. In 10 games just this year, he’s accounted for 17.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks. Additionally, Carter has amassed 45 tackles, three pass breakups, and forced a pair of fumbles.
Carter is a one-man wrecking ball who can single-handedly derail an offense. In the wins over Illinois and Washington, he totaled four tackles for loss, two sacks, and a forced fumble in both games. Despite the loss to Ohio State, Carter came up huge on two third-down sacks against a potential first or second-round talent in Donovan Jackson.
As the Lombardi Award Committee put it, Carter, “With his speed and disruptive playstyle, has cemented himself as one of the most dynamic defensive players in college football and is projected to be an early first-round NFL Draft selection.”
In addition to being named a finalist for the Lombardi Award, Carter is a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award.
