Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh fell short in his bid to make Heisman history earlier this month, but, today, he made a little Associated Press history to make up for the stiff-armed “snub”.
According to the wire service, Suh has been named as their national player of the year. He’s the first defensive player to take home the honor since the award’s inception in 1998.
Suh’s head coach gave the voters a lot of credit for going against the offensive grain and naming the best football player in the country in 2009.
“It’s a great choice,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. ” I give (the voters) a lot of credit. I’m not taking anything away from Ingram or McCoy or any of the other guys. I just think at his position, you would be hard-pressed to say there’s a better player than Suh. He’s had a tremendous year.”
Suh received 26 of 59 first-place votes to finish just ahead of Stanford running back Toby Gerhart. Heisman winner Mark Ingram finished tied for third with Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.
It was only the second time the award did not go to the reigning Heisman winner; back in 2002, Iowa quarterback Brad Banks won the AP award after Carson Palmer had taken home the Heisman.
Well deserved and rightfully his, good on ya mate.
Now, he just needs to end up in a Lions uniform.
Tampa Bay, please win three games.
St Louis- you dogs, win out…
Detroit better lose to SanFran and Chicago… now is NOT the time for moral victories…
This is correct on so many different levels!! I just don’t see him ending up as Big Daddy Wilkerson.. or Steve emtman.. hopefully physically he holds up and continues to get better. what a joy to watch this guy play..
Free Dez Bryant
Congratulations to Mr. Suh for being named AP Player of the Year.
The fact that all the postseason accolades have all been so spread out (Ingram-Heisman, McCoy-Maxwell, Suh-AP, Gerhart-Walker) shows that this was a year where no one player clearly stood head and shoulders above the rest as the best player in college football. Each player is deserving of the respective honors they have won, and would have been worthy recipients of the awards the others received (for which they were eligible).
Now, bring on the bowls!
Congrats Suh you were the most impressive player I have seen all year. Well deserved and you should have won the Heisman in my opinion
The #2 pick should be good enough to get Suh if the Rams get the #1 pick. They just took Chris Long on the DL and need a QB desperately to build around. Word is they like Jimmy Clausen a lot, I see them going offense, not DL again.
Congrats Suh, definitely deserved! If I had a heisman vote you’d have got it too bud