UC Davis safety Rex Connors lands third straight Buck Buchanan watch list nod
Rex Connors made the Buck Buchanan preseason watch list for a third straight year, giving UC Davis another national defensive marker.
Rex Connors landed on the 2026 Buck Buchanan Award preseason watch list on July 14, giving UC Davis another national defensive name and placing the veteran safety among 30 FCS defensive standouts. The selection was Connors’ third straight preseason nod for the award, a run that signals more than a hot month or a one-year spike.
The Buck Buchanan Award recognizes the national defensive player of the year in FCS football and has long served as one of the subdivision’s clearest markers of elite production. Connors has been on that track for a while. UC Davis called him the 7th-best returning safety in the nation on July 3, 2024, then announced a second straight Buck Buchanan preseason watch-list selection on July 30, 2025. He also earned a Stats Perform FCS All-American selection in December 2024, building a résumé that has stayed on the national radar across multiple seasons.
That continuity matters for UC Davis because it gives the Aggies a defender opponents have to plan around before the first snap is even taken. A safety with that kind of repeated recognition can change how quarterbacks attack the field and how much help a defense can give on the back end in close Big Sky games. UC Davis Football highlighted the news across X, Facebook and Instagram the same day, underscoring how central Connors has become to the program’s identity heading into 2026.
The timing also fit a broader preseason surge for the Aggies. UC Davis had four players named to Stats Perform preseason All-American teams on July 13, 2026, giving the program a strong cluster of national recognition just as camp season approaches. In Davis, that gives the defense a proven veteran to build around while the offense and the rest of the roster try to turn preseason respect into a playoff push.
The Buck Buchanan Award was first presented in 1995 and is named for Junious Buchanan. Past winners cited by NCAA.com include Dexter Coakley, Rashean Mathis, Jared Allen, Arthur Moats and Kyle Emanuel, a list that shows how exclusive repeated national recognition can be. Connors’ third straight preseason watch-list spot puts him in that conversation as UC Davis opens another season with one of the FCS’s most dependable defensive names at the center of it.
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