BATON ROUGE (AP) – Four LSU football standouts – Tyrann Mathieu, Sam Montgomery, Barkevious Mingo and Eric Reid – have been named to the watch list for the Bednarik Award, given annually to college football’s national defensive player of the year.

Should one of them win, the Tigers would have their third consecutive Bednarik winner.

The watch list was announced Monday by the Maxwell Football Club.

LSU joined Alabama and Michigan State with the most representatives on the watch list.

The Tigers have produced back-to-back Bednarik Award winners, joining Northwestern and Penn State as the only schools to do so. In 2010, cornerback Patrick Peterson captured the honor as a junior. After a spectacular sophomore season, Mathieu walked away with the award at last year’s ESPN College Football Awards show.

LSU has produced more Bednarik Award recipients than any program in Southeastern Conference history.

Mathieu seeks to become the third repeat winner in the award’s history, joining Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald and Penn State’s Paul Posluszny. A 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist, Mathieu heads into his junior season having created 14 turnovers during his career. His 11 forced fumbles rank seventh in NCAA history and are just three shy of the NCAA career record.