Heel Tough Blog: Derek McDonald Named a Butkus Award Semifinalist
Earlier this week, the Dick Butkus Award released their semifinalists for the 2026 award and one Tar Heel found his name amongst the group.
After not being on the preseason watch list for the award, graduate linebacker Derek McDonald has been named one of the fifteen that are in the hunt to win the country’s most prestigious linebacker award.
So far this season, McDonald has played 468 snaps across the first seven games of the season and has registered an ACC-leading 72 total tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, 0.0 scks, 3 total QB pressures, one forced fumble and a pass breakup. He is coming off his best game of the season against his former team, Syracuse, as he led the way with 16 total tackles, including one tackle for loss, seven defensive stops and one quarterback pressure, while allowing just one reception for seven yards in coverage.
With the tackle numbers that we have seen from the Tar Heel linebackers throughout the season and especially in recent weeks, there is a chance that McDonald can keep putting up big numbers. Even with that, he likely won’t have a complete enough resume to ultimately win the award or even be a finalist, but this is still a great accomplishment for him already.
Preseason watch list member Peyton Seelmann was not named as a semifinalist despite putting together a productive season so far, as well.
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