Suh, Blackshirts Continue to Earn Honors

The award and honors keep coming for senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and his Nebraska defensive teammates. On Wednesday, Suh was named one of eight semifinalists for the 2009 Lott Trophy, named after Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott.

The Lott Trophy is in its sixth year and is presented to the nation's top defensive player, while equally considering the athletic performance and the personal character attributes of the player. Other finalists for this year's award include safety Eric Berry (Tennessee) safety Taylor Mays (USC), defensive tackle Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma), linebacker Rolando McClain (Alabama), defensive end Sam Acho (Texas), defensive end Jerry Hughes (TCU) and defensive end Eric Norwood (South Carolina).

The finalists for the Lott Trophy will be named on Nov. 24 and the winner will be announced on Dec. 13 at a banquet in Newport Beach, Calif.

The Lott Trophy recognition for Suh continues an impressive run of conference and national honors for Blackshirt players this season, including...

* Suh was named one of four finalists for the Rotary Lombardi Award on Tuesday. The 6-4, 300-pound Suh will be in attendance at the Dec. 9 Lombardi Award dinner in Houston where he will look to become Nebraska's fifth winner of the award.

* Senior safety Matt O'Hanlon has received conference and national attention for his record-setting performance in NU's win over Oklahoma last Saturday. O'Hanlon's three interceptions helped earn him Bronko Nagurski National Player-of-the-Week honors, along with Big 12 Defensive Player-of-the-Week accolades.

* O'Hanlon's recognition as the FWAA/Nagurski Player of the Week marked the third time Nebraska has won the award this season. Suh won the award after his performance at Missouri and fellow defensive tackle Jared Crick received the honor after a record-setting sack performance at Baylor.

* Nebraska is the first school in the history of the Nagurski weekly defensive honor (since 2001) to win the award three times in one season. In the nine-year history of the award, there were only three schools that have won the Nagurski award twice in the same season prior to this year.

* Nebraska defenders have also twice won the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week (Suh vs. MU, Crick vs. Baylor), won the Lott IMPACT player-of-the-week twice (Suh vs. MU, ISU) and captured Big 12 Defensive Player-of-the-Week honors three times (Suh vs. MU, Crick vs. Baylor, O'Hanlon vs. OU).

The honors are the result of a season of impressive play and statistics from Suh and the Blackshirts. Among the statistical highlights are...

* Nebraska ranks in the top 11 nationally in four major defensive statistical categories, including second in scoring defense and pass efficiency defense, 10th in rush defense and 11th in total defense.

* Nebraska held seven straight opponents to 280 or fewer yards, the longest streak by a Blackshirt defense since 1996. Opponents are averaging just 3.97 yards per play which ranks fifth in the country. In five Big 12 games, NU is allowing a Big 12-best 3.7 yards per opponent snap.

* Nebraska has allowed 16 points or fewer in eight of nine games this season, and the 93 points allowed is the second-fewest by a Nebraska defense through nine games in the past 25 seasons. The Blackshirts have not allowed a fourth-quarter point in the past three games and have allowed just one second-half offensive touchdown in five Big 12 Conference games.

* The Blackshirts have given up only three passing touchdowns this season, tying Air Force for the national lead. Nebraska is the only school in the country allowing a touchdown pass on less than 1 percent of the opposition's passing attempts. Nebraska has held five opponents to 50 percent or less in the passing department and the opponent pass completion percentage of 49.8 percent ranks sixth in the country.

* Nebraska has allowed its five Big 12 opponents an average of just 77.4 rushing yards per game, and each of the Huskers last seven opponents has averaged fewer than 3.0 yards per rush. In Big 12 games, Nebraska has allowed only two runs of 20 yards or more.

* Nebraska has allowed opponents just 14 trips into the Red Zone this season, a mark that ties for TCU for the fewest in the country.

* Suh and Crick are the only defensive tackle combination in the country to currently rank 1-2 on their team in tackles. They are the only two defensive tackles among the top 40 in the Big 12 in tackles per game.

* Crick and Suh are the first pair of Blackshirt interior linemen to post double figure TFLs in the same season since 1990, and their combined totals of 27 tackles for loss and 14 sacks are the best for a duo of Blackshirt defensive tackles since All-Americans Jim Skow and Danny Noonan combined for 39 tackles for loss and 26 sacks in 1985.

* Nebraska junior cornerback Prince Amukamara is tied for eighth nationally in passes defended at 1.33 per game. Amukamara has nine pass breakups and three intercpetions on the season. In Big 12 games only, Amukamara leads the conference with 1.8 passes defended per game.

* In Big 12 games, Crick and senior linebacker Phillip Dillard rank sixth and seventh, respectively in tackles per game. Dillard has three games of eight or more tackles in conference play.