Irish players appear on Butkus, Rotary Lombardi watch lists

Two more watch lists, for the Butkus Award and the Rotary Lombardi Award, were released on Tuesday, and a slew of Notre Dame football players again made the cut.

Junior Jaylon Smith and sophomore Nyles Morgan both appeared on the watch list for the Butkus Award, which honors college football's top linebacker. The watch list for the Rotary Lombardi Award — which encompasses offensive linemen, defensive linemen and linebackers — featured Smith, junior right guard Steve Elmer, graduate student center Nick Martin, senior left tackle Ronnie Stanley, senior defensive tackle Sheldon Day, senior nose tackle Jarron Jones and graduate student linebacker Joe Schmidt.

Notre Dame will open the 2015 season by hosting Texas on Sept. 5.