The end of the college football regular season means it is time to see which Georgia football players win national awards and make the All-American teams. One of those players who has already won a major award was linebacker Jalon Walker, who took home the 2024 Butkus Award which goes to the nation’s best linebacker.
One would assume that Walker winning this award would mean that he is in line to receive many other massive honors as well. That however has not been the case.
The first decision that made no sense was Walke only making the All-SEC second team. But to make matters even worse, Walker was disrespected even more by the Associate Press (AP) All-America team selections.
Five players on Georgia were named to one of the AP All-America teams, including guard Dylan Fairchild, punter Brett Thorson and safety Maliki Starks on the second team while guard Tate Ratledge made the third team. Those are all great honors for those four players that they should be very proud of.
But Walker was the fifth and final Bulldog to make an AP All-America team, and he was only put on the third team. How is it possible for Walker to be named the nation’s best linebacker but only make the third team according to the Associated Press?
This is just another example of AP voters not knowing what they are doing, which is commonly seen in the AP Poll that is released every week during the season.
Thankfully Walker did win the Butkus Award because that was his main goal before even stepping foot on Georgia’s campus, according to Kirby Smart. So at the end of the day, Walker won the award that matters most, and he now has a chance to add a second National Championship to his resume as well.
