Florida junior running back Jadan Baugh is on the Maxwell Award radar again.
The Maxwell Football Club announced Monday that Baugh has been placed on the 2026 Maxwell Award preseason watch list, a fitting nod after the kind of sophomore season that put him squarely among the SEC’s most productive backs in 2025.
Baugh started all 12 games and finished as Florida’s leading rusher with 1,170 yards and eight touchdowns on 220 carries. He also contributed as a receiver, catching 21 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns.
His biggest day came in the 2025 season finale against Florida State, when he ripped off 266 rushing yards. That was the second-most in a game in program history and the most ever by a Gator against Florida State, pushing him past the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
Baugh became the 10th player in Florida history to top 1,000 rushing yards and just the third underclassman to do it, joining Emmitt Smith (Fr., 1987) and Errict Rhett (So., 1991). He finished the year with All-SEC Second Team honors.
Florida entered the 2025 season with more help in the backfield, adding Evan Pryor and London Montgomery while also bringing back second-year running backs Duke Clark and Byron Louis. That gave Baugh support in Jon Sumrall’s first season in Gainesville.
Even with that help around him, Baugh’s future at Florida was not settled after UF fired former head coach Billy Napier. Multiple programs tried to pull him into the transfer portal, but Florida’s incoming staff held its ground and kept him in Gainesville.
At SEC Media Days, Baugh explained why he stayed.
"One, just being a Gator is everything to me and being able to just play for the fans that support us when we're down, up, regardless. They came around and embraced me with open arms just to keep going.
And it was the greatest (lost audio) to me (indiscernible). But with the coaching staff, they came in with the fire in their eyes.
And I told everybody that. When the coaching staff come in with a fire in their eye and they're ready to just go, I'm ready to play right then and there," Baugh said at SEC Media Days of his decision to return to Florida.
"There's nothing like The Swamp in general. I don't too much see another stadium that I'm just ready to just play other than The Swamp."
The Maxwell Award has honored the College Player of the Year since 1937 and is named for Robert "Tiny" Maxwell, a former standout at Swarthmore College and a respected sportswriter and football official.
This year’s watch list includes 81 players, with 16 from the SEC. The field will be cut to semifinalists on Nov. 10, followed by three finalists on Nov.
- The winner will be announced on Dec. 10 during the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show.
The Maxwell Football Club is working with Phil Steele Publications as part of the selection committee that will decide who moves on.
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