CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FWAA) Louisville senior defensive end Elvis
Dumervil has won the 2005 Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which annually
is awarded to the best defensive player in college football.
Dumervil is the 13th Nagurski Trophy recipient and the first Louisville
player to win the award, as voted upon by the Football Writers Association
of America All-America committee and sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown
Club. The announcement was made Monday night at the annual awards banquet
attended by more than 900 people at the Westin Hotel.
"I am really grateful," Dumervil said after accepting the award. "It
is a great deal for me. Coach Petrino (Bobby, Louisville's head coach) is
one of the best coaches in America. And I want to thank my teammates, they
were there all season and they worked hard. We really sweated together this
season."
The award is given in memory of the legendary Bronko Nagurski, a former
All-American lineman at Minnesota (1927-29) and star for professional footballs
Chicago Bears in the 1930s.
Other finalists were Oregon junior defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, Penn
State senior defensive end Tamba Hali, Virginia Tech senior defensive back
Jimmy Williams and Alabama senior linebacker DeMeco Ryans.
Dumervil won the award after leading the nation with 20 sacks (1.82 per
game) for 151 yards in losses. He also led the country in forced fumbles
with 10 in 11 games. He was second in the country in tackles for loss with
22 for 165 yards in losses.
Louisville, participating in the Big East Conference for the first time
in 2005, compiled a 9-2 record and earned a trip to the Toyota Gator Bowl
to face Virginia Tech.
Dumervil registered nine sacks in his first two games of the season against
Kentucky and Oregon State and surpassed the old two-game NCAA Division I-A
record of eight by Georgia Tech's Pat Swilling. Later, in a 69-14 thumping
of North Carolina, Dumervil had three sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception.
"A couple of times, I thought he was offsides," Petrino said of the sacks.
"But he was just moving with the ball."
Dumervil, a 6-0, 256-pounder from Miami, Fla., is highly coveted by the
Indianapolis Colts in their 4-3 defensive scheme. Former Syracuse defensive
end Dwight Freeney, who was a Bronko Nagurski Trophy finalist in 2001, now
plays defensive end for the Colts.
"I sorta used size to my advantage, I could get extra leverage," Dumervil
said. "During the season, I knew I was not the proto-typical defensive end.
I knew I had to work that much harder, if I wanted to purse a career at
the next level.
"I would love to play for the Colts. I have spoken to Freeney during
the year. And he is a good guy. I have learned from him. He told me when
I got double-teamed and that started to happen · to keep going hard and
try to key the ball."
The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization
founded in 1941, consists of more than 900 men and women across North America
who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists,
broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas
that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include game
day operations, major awards, a national poll and its annual All-America
team.
The Charlotte Touchdown Club is a non-profit organization founded
in 1990 for the purpose of promoting high school, collegiate, and professional
football in the Charlotte, N.C. region. The club's activities and services
focus community attention on the outstanding citizenship, scholarship, sportsmanship,
and leadership of area athletes and coaches. For more information, contact
John Rocco (704-347-2918 or
jrocco@touchdownclub.com).
The official website of the Charlotte Touchdown Club is
www.touchdownclub.com.
For more information on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, contact FWAA executive
director Steve Richardson (972-713-6198 or
tiger@fwaa.com).