ORLANDO – As the UCF football team opened fall camp this morning, attention is already focused on The City Beautiful, and for good reason. The Maxwell Football Club announced that UCF running back Jaden Nixon has been named to the Maxwell Award Watch List to kick off the 2025 campaign.
The Maxwell Award has been presented to the College Player of the Year since 1937 and is named in honor of Robert “Tiny” Maxwell who was a former standout at Swarthmore College and a renowned sportswriter and football official. The Maxwell Award watch list will once again incorporate a broad spectrum of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs and conferences from coast to coast. The full list consists of 80 players; the SEC has 17 candidates followed by the ACC (16), Big 12 (15) and Big Ten (14). Ashton Jeanty from Boise State University was the 2024 Maxwell Award winner and was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Nixon earned All-MAC First Team honors last season at Western Michigan, appearing in 13 games and rushing for 921 yards on 143 carries. He found paydirt 12 times throughout the course of the 2024 slate, including a trio of touchdowns against Buffalo. He racked up a season-high 189 yards on the ground against Bethune-Cookman while his longest rush of the season came against Kent State, scooting 92 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. The Maxwell Award Watch List adds to another preseason honor he’s already tallied; Phil Steele listed him as Preseason Big 12 Second Team prior to the Knights kicking off in August.
Nixon’s nod to the list adds to a long list of storied former UCF athletes to be bestowed the same recognition, following most recently fellow running back RJ Harvey who made the watch list last season. UCF’s last Maxwell Award semifinalist is now on staff with the Black and Gold; quarterbacks coach McKenzie Milton earned semifinalist nods in 2017 and 2018.
Semifinalists for the Maxwell Award will be announced November 11, 2025, while the three finalists for the Maxwell Award will be unveiled November 25, 2025. The winner of the 89th Maxwell Award will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on December 11, 2025. The formal presentations of the Maxwell Award will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards on Friday, March 13, 2026 in Atlanta.