Justin Williams
Wilson Alexander
Dallas (FWAA)--Justin Williams of The Athletic and Wilson Alexander, now of On3, are the co-recipients of the FWAA's Steve Ellis Beat Writer of the Year Award for the 2025 season.
Williams is a national college football writer for the New York Times' The Athletic, while Alexander, who earlier this year took a similar role at On3 after covering LSU for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La. Alexander, a Georgia graduate, received the FWAA's Rising Star Award for FWAA writers 34 or younger in 2023. .
"Besides Indiana, what happened at LSU with Lane Kiffin and the firing of Brian Kelly at LSU was the biggest, if not the second biggest story in college football," said FWAA Past President Mark Blaudschun of FWAA.com and a former FWAA co-beat writer of the year. "Alexander was on top of it all the way. He provided insightful and breaking news stories on the crumbling of the Kelly era at LSU and then Kiffin's messy divorce at Ole Miss and back-and-forth decision taking the LSU job. Alexander even interviewed former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron on Miami Beach during the national title weekend about becoming an LSU assistant (which eventually happened)."
Williams, a former Cincinnati Magazine writer-editor who previously covered Cincinnati for The Athletic, recently moved to the national beat and has proven to be one of the most versatile writers in college football. He is an Ohio University graduate.
"Justin has dramatically stepped up his game and ability with us over the past few years," said Chris Vannini, also a former Co-Beat Writer of the Year. "Since he has moved up to a national role, he has been tasked with some of the biggest stories in the sport and hit home runs, from the House settlement to private equity to Mike Gundy's downfall to Brendan Sorsby's transfer. He always finds good angles and the perfect sources to talk about any topic..He always knows how to properly contextualize complex stories.Justin's been a rising star in this business and is now one of the best covering the sport, and he deserves more attention."
Steve Ellis FWAA Beat Writers of the Year .
2010 Doug Lesmerises, Cleveland Plain Dealer
2011 Mark Blaudschun, Boston Globe; Steve Wieberg, USA Today
2012 Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News
2013 Tim May, Columbus Dispatch
2014 Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times
2015 Jason Kersey, The Oklahoman
2016 Mike Griffith, SEC Country
2017 Dennis Dodd,CBSSports.com; Chris Vannini,The Athletic
2018 Brett McMurphy, Stadium Network
2029 Ross Dellenger, Sports Illustrated
2020 Dave Matter, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
2021 Brent Zwerneman, Houston Chronicle
2022 Angelique Chengelis, Detroit News; Scott Dochterman, The Athletic
2023 Travis Brown, KBTX.com; Chris Low, ESPN.com
2024 Jesse Temple, Badger Connect
2025 Wilson Alexander, The Advocate (La.); Justin Williams, The Athletic
#30
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