Lincoln - Nebraska may need to make some renovations to its new trophy case in the Osborne Athletic Complex. Senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh's awards may be out-growing the space available for hardware.
On Thursday night, Suh captured the Outland Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award. Both awards were presented in Orlando, Fla., at the ESPN Awards Show.
The Outland Trophy is presented annually to the Nation's Most Outstanding Interior Lineman, and Suh adds to Nebraska's long history with the award. Suh's trophy gives Nebraska a nation-leading nine Outland Trophies, four more than Oklahoma. Suh is the first Husker to win the award since offensive lineman Aaron Taylor captured the honor in 1997. The Outland Trophy will be officially presented to Suh at a banquet in Omaha on Jan. 14.
On Wednesday, evening Suh won the Rotary Lombardi Award in Houston and he is the fourth Husker player to sweep those awards in the same season, joining Rich Glover (1972), Dave Rimington (1982) and Dean Steinkuhler (1983). Overall, Suh is just the 12th player to captured the Outland and Lombardi in the same season, with the only other player to do so since 1996 being LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey in 2007.
Suh also made a clean sweep of the national defensive player-of-the-year awards by winning the Bednarik Award. The award is given to the Nation's Most Outstanding Defensive Player and is presented by the Maxwell Football Club. He is the first Husker to win the award in its 15-year history. Suh also won the Nagurski Trophy earlier this week, also given to the nation's top defender, and he is just the fifth player to sweep those two awards, most recently Miami's Dan Morgan in 2000.
Along with his two awards, Suh was also selected to the Walter Camp Football Foundation All-America team. In its 120th year, it is the nation’s oldest All-America team. Suh was one of seven Big 12 players named to the first-team, joining three players from Texas, two from Oklahoma and one from Oklahoma State.
The 6-4, 300-pound Suh was also a finalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year on Thursday night, but that award was given to Texas’ Colt McCoy. Suh will now travel to New York City on Friday morning where he is one of five finalists for the 75th Heisman Trophy. The Heisman ceremony will be televised by ESPN on Saturday evening beginning at 7 p.m. CT. Suh is also a finalist for the Lott Trophy, which will be presented on Sunday evening in Newport Beach, Calif.
