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As the summer blazes on and the beginning of college football becomes clearer on the horizon, the end of the year award organizations begins to release their watch lists.
These lists highlight the players that the award committees will be tracking with earnest over the 2017-‘18 college football season. The latest award to release its watch list is the Jim Thorpe award, which is given to the top Defensive Back in the nation.
On that list is the leader of USC’s secondary, Iman Marshall. With Adoree’ Jackson off acclimating to life in the NFL, Marshall takes over as the Trojan’s lock down corner. The 6’1 200-pound junior was the top Defensive Back recruit in 2015 and made an instant impact starting 12 games as a true freshman.
“Biggie” Marshall then followed up his phenomenal freshman year with 51 tackles, 8 pass deflections and 3 interceptions in 2016.
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With USC facing the Air-raid offenses of Cal Berkeley and Washington State, a major battle in the Coliseum vs the wide-open spread of Texas, Marshall will have plenty of opportunities to make plays. If Marshall can continue to be the model of consistency that he has his first two years at USC, A Trojan could take home the Thorpe Award for the second straight season.