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Chuck Bednarik Award
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Paul Posluszny, The Pennsylvania State University
Posluszny not only plays linebacker for the Nittany Lions, but he wears No. 31, previously worn by All-Americas Shane Conlan and Andre Collins. Coach Joe Paterno compares the 6-2, 230-pound Posluszny to Conlan, who was captain of the 1986 team which upset Miami in the Fiesta Bowl and won the school’s last national title. “I think Paul is as good a linebacker as there is in the country,” Paterno said. “I think he’s done everything you could ask a kid to do. He’s played almost every play. He’s a great leader, the whole bit.” Posluszny was recruited by two dozen major colleges, but he chose to attend Penn State and this season he helped restore the school to national prominence. The Nittany Lions earned a Big 10 co-championship with an 11-1 record after finishing the 2004 season at 4-7. As Mark Beech wrote in Sports Illustrated: “If any playmaker was emblematic of the program’s resurrection it was Posluszny. He has been both the leading tackle and the heartbeat of an attacking, fearsome unit that ranks among the best in the nation.” Tonight, he will become the 11th recipient of the Maxwell Club’s Chuck Bednarik Award as the outstanding defensive player in college football. He received 294 votes from the Maxwell Club selectors, finishing well ahead of A.J. Hawk (188), the All-America linebacker from Ohio State. He is the second Nittany Lion to receive the Bednarik Award, joining LaVar Arrington, who won in 1999. Another proud alumnus of “Linebacker U”, Hall of Famer Jack Ham considers Posluszny the best of them all. “Of all the great ones to play here, I rate him No. 1,” Ham said. “There’s not a weakness in his game.” This season, Posluszny was elected team captain. He was the first junior to earn that honor since defensive linemen Mike Reid and Steve Smear shared it in 1968. He also excelled in the classroom where he earned a 3.67 grade point average as a finance major. Posluszny led the Nittany Lions with 116 tackles during the 2005 season. He suffered a severe knee injury late in the Orange Bowl against Florida State. He begged the team doctor to give him a pain-killing shot that would allow him to return to the game but the doctor refused so Posluszny could only watch as the Nittany Lions pulled out a 26-23 win in triple overtime. “Paul is a believer,” defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. “He believes in what he’s doing and he believes in this team. It’s rubbed off on everybody.” Posluszny was a running back and linebacker at Hopewell High School, where he embraced the tradition of Western Pennsylvania football and, in Beech’s words, “played with an abandon that bordered on the fanatical.” “Paul’s greatest asset as a defensive player is his acceleration,” said Dave Vestal, who was Posluszny’s coach at Hopewell. “He can accelerate on a dime and just explode into a ball carrier.” Posluszny recalls attending the pre-season Big 10 media day in Chicago and sitting alone in the interview room while reporters crowded around the players from Ohio State, Iowa and Michigan State. The expectations for the Nittany Lions were that low, but the team shocked the experts by climbing to No. 3 in the polls. Not many people thought we were going to be good, but
here we are: We finally won the Big Ten,” Posluszny said. “To go from the
bottom of the barrel to the top, that was the only thing on my mind.” |
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Paul Posluszny understands football tradition. He
grew up in Aliquippa, PA, the home of Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight
end and coach. He attended Hopewell High School, which produced Tony
Dorsett, the 1976 Maxwell Award winner as college player of the year. Now
he plays linebacker at Penn State, which was once known as “Linebacker U.”