Four Utah Players Land on the 2026 Maxwell Award Watch List

Four Utah players are on the 2026 Maxwell Award watch list: BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier and running back LJ Martin, and Utah quarterback Devon Dampier and running back Wayshawn Parker. The award, given by the Maxwell Football Club to the most outstanding player in college football, released an 81-player preseason list on August 3, and the state placed four of them.

The volume stands out. The watch list includes 15 players from the Big 12, and BYU and Utah are two of only 16 schools nationally to land at least two honorees apiece. Two in-state rivals, four offensive players — two quarterbacks and two running backs — all in the national player-of-the-year conversation before a single 2026 snap.

BYU's football duo

BYU's pair is the most decorated. LJ Martin, a senior running back from El Paso, ran for 1,305 yards in 2025 — 11th nationally — at 100.38 yards per game, the seventh-most rushing yards in a single BYU season. He also averaged 120 all-purpose yards per game, 13th nationally. He was named the 2025 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-Big 12 selection, added Pro Football Network second-team All-America honors, and was an Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award semifinalist.

Bachmeier's freshman season set the table for the expectation. The sophomore quarterback completed 251 of 387 passes (64.9%) for 3,033 yards — 216.6 per game — with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and added 527 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns on 147 carries. He was the 2025 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, a Manning Award candidate and a Davey O'Brien Award semifinalist.

Utah's answer

Utah's selections are built on a similar quarterback-plus-running-back core. Devon Dampier, a senior quarterback, threw for 2,180 yards and 22 touchdowns while rushing for 687 yards and seven scores during the 2025 regular season, earning Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year, third-team All-Big 12 recognition and Manning Award finalist honors in his first year in Salt Lake City. Part of that turnaround was ball security: Dampier cut his interceptions to five on 334 pass attempts, down from 12 the year before at New Mexico.

Parker is the other half. The junior running back was Utah's leading rusher in 2025, playing in all 13 games and gaining 981 yards with six touchdowns on 149 carries, which earned him third-team All-Big 12 recognition of his own. Together, Dampier and Parker give Utah a returning backfield that mirrors BYU's — an experienced dual-threat quarterback paired with a proven lead back.

Four players, one state, two rivals

The watch list is not a final ballot; it is a preseason net cast wide, and 81 names will be trimmed as the season plays out. But the concentration is meaningful. BYU, Kansas State and Utah were the only Big 12 programs to place two players each, and BYU and Utah doing it from the same state underscores how much returning offensive production sits inside Utah's two Power Four programs. Only 16 schools nationally cleared that two-honoree bar, and BYU and Utah are two of them — both from Utah, both now competing in the same Big 12 Conference.

Every one of the four is on offense, and every one is a returner rather than a transfer arrival — Martin and Bachmeier carrying BYU's rushing-and-passing identity, Dampier and Parker anchoring Utah's. That is the through-line: the state's headliners are known quantities entering 2026, not projections.

What comes next

The Maxwell field narrows through the fall based on results, not résumés. BYU opened its season on September 5 with a 63-7 win over Utah Tech at LaVell Edwards Stadium, per BYU's recap, and both Cougars are being measured against the production that put them on the list. For Utah, Dampier's decision to return for another season is the reason the Utes have a candidate at quarterback at all.

The four names also set up a season-long thread: a statewide race among nationally recognized players, decided on the field rather than in a preseason vote. If Utah's two Power Four programs are producing player-of-the-year candidates at this rate, the fall will show whether the preseason recognition converts into results.

Key facts:

• Watch list: 2026 Maxwell Award (most outstanding player in college football), 81 players named August 3
• BYU: QB Bear Bachmeier (2025 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year), RB LJ Martin (2025 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, 1,305 rushing yards)
• Utah: QB Devon Dampier (2025 Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year), RB Wayshawn Parker (team-high 981 rushing yards)
• National context: 15 Big 12 players; BYU and Utah among only 16 schools with two-plus honorees
• All four are offensive players and returners — two quarterbacks, two running backs

*Update, Sept. 27, 2026: Utah was 4-0 and 1-0 in the Big 12 after a 31-17 win at Iowa State on September 26, when Parker ran for 174 yards and Dampier threw for 203, according to Utah's recap. Utah's awards tracker lists Dampier for the Davey O'Brien Award weekly "Great 8" and midseason watch list on September 14.*

*Update, Oct. 10, 2026: BYU was 5-0 and 3-0 in the Big 12 after a 24-10 win over Iowa State on October 9, when Bachmeier passed for 329 yards and ran for 109, according to BYU's recap; BYU's October 3 recap at TCU said Martin left that game in the first quarter after two carries. Utah was 4-0 and 1-0 with no game on October 3, and hosted Kansas on October 10, a kickoff Utah moved to 6 p.m. MT for weather. Utah's awards tracker lists Parker as Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on September 28 and Dampier on the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Top 15 on October 8.*

*Update, Oct. 16, 2026: Utah beat Kansas 41-24 at Rice-Eccles Stadium on October 10, per Utah's schedule.*