By Paul M. Banks
Staying in school another year truly helped Nebraska senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, arguably the nation’s best college football player. Suh, a finalist for the Lombardi, Outland, Nagurski and Bednarik awards, recently spoke about why he returned for his senior season. “It was really a matter of weighing the pros and cons and the pros outweighed the cons in my eyes, and my decision has treated me well this season. I never second guessed the decision and I’m happy with it.”
And indeed he should be happy with it, as he’s considered a top three pick in just about every NFL Mock Draft you can find. Saturday night, in what was essentially a “Final Four” game for college football’s deranged version of a playoff system, Suh was the best player on the field in a game every college football fan was watching. We know that defensive players winning the Heisman happens about as often as mainstream media criticism of Tim Tebow, but Suh should at least be invited to New York City next week.
He almost single-handedly guided his Huskers to the upset. After the game Texas Coach (and charter member of Bill Simmons’ “Reggie Cleveland All-Star team”) Mack Brown, said about Suh
“He was all over the place. We just couldn’t handle him. I tried to find him to wish him good luck in the NFL, because I don’t want to see him again.”
Here’s what he did in the Big 12 title game, a performance that made the name no can pronounce a household name
- Suh sacked Texas quarterback Colt McCoy 4.5 times in last night’s game. McCoy had never been sacked that many times by another team during his four-year career at Texas–let alone one player. Nebraska had nine sacks as a team.
- Suh’s 4.5 sacks were just 0.5 sack off the Nebraska school record, set earlier this season by his teammate Jared Crick. Those are the top two individual sack efforts in the nation this season.
- Suh tied a Nebraska record with seven tackles for loss against the Longhorns. Two of his other five tackles were for no gain, giving him nine tackles in the game for zero or negative yards
- His 12 tackles tied his career high.
Here’s a quick look at Suh’s numbers for the season and career and where they stand nationally and in the Nebraska record book.
- Sacks…12 sacks for 77 yards in losses in 2009 is tied for the third-most in Nebraska history, ninth nationally in sacks per game in 09
- Tackles for Loss…23 tackles for loss in 2009 is the second-most in a season in NU history and he is tied for 14th nationally in TFL per game…Increased his career TFL total to 56, good for second on the NU list, trailing only two-time All-American Grant Wistrom (58.5)
- Total Tackles…Suh leads Nebraska with 82 tackles, including 50 solo tackles…he is likely to be the first defensive lineman ever to lead Nebraska in total tackles in consecutive seasons
- Pass Breakups…Suh has 10 breakups this season and is the only defensive lineman ranked in the top 100 nationally in that category…he has 15 career pass breakups
- Earned Lott Trophy Impact Player of the Week for the third time this season—first time in history of award a player has won the award three times in one season
- Only defensive lineman in the country to rank in the top 100 in pass breakups (Suh is 31st)
- Behind Suh, Nebraska ranks third nationally in scoring defense and pass efficiency defense and eighth in total defense
- Nebraska defense leads country in passing TDs allowed (4) and opponent red-zone trips (18)
Learn more at Suh93.c0m