Valladay lands on Maxwell Award watch list again

LARAMIE -- The Maxwell Football Club announced on Monday its 2021 Watch List for the 85th Maxwell Award powered by Mammoth Tech. The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the outstanding player in college football. Among the players named to this year’s watch list is University of Wyoming junior running back Xazavian Valladay.

It marks the second consecutive season that Valladay has been named to the Maxwell Award Watch List.

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Mammoth Tech and The Athletes’ Corner are both Executive Partners of the Maxwell Football Club. The Maxwell Football Club has also once again partnered with Pro Football Focus (PFF), XOS ThunderCloud and Phil Steele Publications as selection committee partners.

Since 1937, the Maxwell Award has been presented to the College Player of the Year. It is named in honor of Robert “Tiny” Maxwell, a former standout at Swarthmore College who went on to become a well-known sportswriter and football official.

Valladay has been a First Team All-Mountain West Conference selection each of the past two seasons. He led the Mountain West in rushing yards per game in both 2019 (105.4 per game) and 2020 (110.0 per game) and ranked 18th nationally in 2019 and 17th in 2020.

In the five games he played in 2020, Valladay also averaged 131.00 all-purpose yards to rank 27th in the country. In 2019, he recorded his first 1,000-yard rushing season, with 1,265 yards to lead the Mountain West. The native of Matteson, Ill., also led the MW in all-purpose yards in 2019 and ranked No. 26 in the nation, averaging 124.08 yards per game.

Valladay had two 100-yard rushing games in the five he played in 2020. He ran for 163 yards against Hawai’i and 147 at Colorado State. The 2019 season saw Valladay rush for 100 or more yards seven times in the 12 games he played, and he rushed for over 200 yards twice.

His best games were 206 rushing yards vs. Nevada and 204 against Georgia State in the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl. His other five 100-yard rushing games included: 118 vs. Missouri, 127 vs. New Mexico, 124 at Boise State, 114 at Utah State and 154 vs. Colorado State.

His 204-yard performance in Wyoming’s 38-17 Arizona Bowl victory earned Valladay a spot on the 2019 Associated Press All-Bowl Team. He also caught three passes for 91 yards in the bowl win and scored one touchdown rushing and one receiving while accounting for 295 all-purpose yards.

Valladay was one of only three running backs in the nation named to the AP All-Bowl Team, joining Penn State’s Journey Brown and Florida’s Lamical Perine.

Semifinalists for the 2021 Maxwell Award will be announced Nov. 1, 2021, while the three finalists for the Maxwell Award will be unveiled Nov. 22. The winner of the 2021 Maxwell Award will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on Dec. 9, 2021. The formal presentations of the Maxwell Award will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala hosted by Tropicana Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on March 11, 2022.

ABOUT MAMMOTH TECH - Mammoth Tech is one of America’s most versatile outsourcing companies. Their clients have included a Top-10 Global Restaurant Company, a Top-15 U.S. Healthcare System with over 80,000 employees, and they’re currently one of 13 companies holding the United States Department of Education Default Collection Services Contract. Since being founded in 1964, Mammoth has developed a coast-to-coast presence with approximately 500 employees spanning 6 corporate locations and 7 subcontractor locations. They believe in building up the communities where people work, which is why many of their locations are in HUB Zones or economically-distressed Opportunity Zones. Mammoth lives by a “People-First” mentality, as they help businesses of all sizes achieve maximum efficiency and productivity.

ABOUT THE ATHLETES’ CORNER – The Athletes’ Corner works with professional athletes and teams to strengthen families who are struggling mentally, physically, and spiritually - all through the vehicle of sports. Partnering with Feeding America®, they launched an initiative called ‘The Athletes’ Corner vs. Hunger’, which has already provided 1.7 million meals to hungry families since November 1st, 2020.

ABOUT THE SELECTION COMMITTEE PARTNERS - PFF provides detailed metrics and performance-based assessments to selection committee staff, and several senior PFF analysts are members of our selection committee. Phil Steele’s College Football Preview is generally recognized as the most complete preseason magazine. XOS ThunderCloud provides the Maxwell Club selection committee with access to game footage from all FBS colleges.

ABOUT THE MAXWELL FOOTBALL CLUB – The Maxwell Football Club was founded in 1935 and is the oldest football organization of its kind in America. The Club recognizes excellence in performance at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of the game. The Maxwell Club is also deeply involved and fully vested in the community through programs to promote academic excellence, community volunteerism, and leadership. High school student-athletes around the country have an opportunity to participate in MFC Showcase events, free of charge, through the generosity of our corporate partners, Mammoth Tech and the Athletes’ Corner. To learn more about our story visit www.maxwellfootballclub.org.