Nittany Lion senior defensive end Carl Nassib is one of just four finalists for this year’s Rotary Lombardi Award for the Nations Top College Lineman (offensive or defensive).
The Lombardi Award is given annually to the nations top offensive or defensive lineman or linebacker that best resembles Vince Lombardi through outstanding performance and best exemplifies the same level of discipline.
The award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association The NCFAA also encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients.
Nassib is the first finalist to be chosen from Penn State since Paul Posluszny, a finalist in 2005 and then again in 2006. The finalists for the award will be honored in Houston on Wednesday, Dec. 9.Bruce Clark is Penn State’s lone Lombardi Award winner that was claimed in 1978.
In addition to Nassib, Ohio State’s Joey Bosa, Texas A&M’s Garrett Myles and Clemson’s Shaq Lawson are also finalists.
Nassib sprung on to the national scene this year and earned himself a variety of phenomenal accomplishments. He currently leads FBS in sacks (15.5), tackles for loss (19.5) and forced fumbles (6). The Nittany Lion has also recorded a sack in each game this season and five multi-sack games. With one sack at Northwestern, Nassib broke the Penn State single-season sacks record by upping his total to 15.5. He even surpasses the mark of 15 sacks, which was set by Larry Kubin (1979) and Michael Haynes. (2002).
The Penn Stater’s six forced fumbles this season are the most made by a Penn State player since Haynes had a school-record of seven in the 2002 season. Nassib is also the first Penn State player to force two fumbles in two games in a season since Maurice Evans did it in 2007, both of which were crucially made against Indiana and Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl.
The Nittany Lion was recently named a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award for the nation’s Defensive Player of the Year. Additionally, he is a candidate for the Burlsworth Trophy for the nation’s top player that started his career as a walk-on. He was also a midseason All-America choice by CBS Sports, SI.com, ESPN.com, and USAToday.com.
One of the few remaining stand-alone NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision collegiate awards, each year the four finalists of the Rotary Lombardi Award travel to Houston for the presentation. While in the community, each finalist will make a stop at Texas Children’s Hospital and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to visit the Front Line Kids. FLK are children who are fighting cancer locally in the Houston Medical Center. Since the award’s inception, millions have been raised to help fund cancer research, public education and direct services to cancer patients.
This award was been given out for over forty-five years. Head coaches of NCAA FBS teams, all former winners and finalists of the Lombardi Award, as well as selected members of the media will make up the electorate that decides the award winner.
