DALLAS (FWAA) – Syracuse defensive end Fadil Diggs came up with a third-down sack in overtime that forced No. 25 UNLV to settle for a field goal, creating the opportunity for the Orange to grab a ranked win on the road, 44-41. For tying his career-high with two sacks and his play on the defensive front, Diggs earned the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week honor for games during the weekend of Oct. 5, as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.
Each week during the regular season, the FWAA has selected a Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week since 2001. The FWAA and the Charlotte Touchdown Club will announce finalists for the 2024 Bronko Nagurski Trophy on Nov. 20. The national defensive player of the year will be chosen from those finalists who are part of the 2024 FWAA All-America Team and presented with the trophy at the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet on Dec. 9 at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Players may be added or removed from the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list during the season. If a player isn’t already on the preseason watch list – including Diggs this week – each week’s honored player is added at that time.
Diggs, a 6-5 redshirt senior from East Camden, N.J., had two sacks in a game for a second time this season and finished with six total tackles as Syracuse has beated a ranked team twice in a season for the first time since 2001. Previously, the Orange beat then-No. 23 Georgia Tech on Sept. 7, 31-28. Diggs had four solo stops against UNLV and his six tackles were second on the team.
Diggs is now 11th in the nation and second in the ACC in tackles for loss, averaging 1.6 per contest. He is 22nd nationally and fifth in the ACC in sacks per game at 0.80. He has had two sacks in a game four times now in his career and is currently fourth on the Orange defense in total tackles (27) this season.
The redshirt senior transferred to Syracuse from Texas A&M last December, where he was a two-time team captain. In his first game with the Orange in the season opener against Ohio, Diggs had four tackles for loss, tied for the sixth-best total in a single game in program history. He appeared in 33 games with 20 starts at Texas A&M, where he had 75 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks and three forced fumbles. He had 11.0 TFL’s last season and Texas A&M's defense finished fifth nationally in the category.
The win at UNLV was also Syracuse’s first road win over a top-25 team since 2010 when it topped West Virginia in a Big East Conference game.
Syracuse begins a stretch of five-straight ACC games when it takes on NC State at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on the ACC Network.
The FWAA All-America Committee, after voting input from the association’s full membership, selects a 26-man All-America Team and eventually the Bronko Nagurski Trophy finalists. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner will be chosen from the finalists named in November. Committee members, by individual ballot, select the winner they regard as the best defensive player in college football.
The FWAA has chosen a National Defensive Player of the Year since 1993. In 1995, the FWAA named the award in honor of the legendary two-way player from the University of Minnesota. Nagurski dominated college football, then became a star for professional football’s Chicago Bears in the 1930s. Bronislaw "Bronko" Nagurski is a charter member of both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association. Founded in 1997, the NCFAA includes college football’s most prestigious awards and its 24 awards have honored more than 900 recipients dating back to 1935. This season, 13 NCFAA awards will honor national players of the week each Tuesday. For more information about the NCFAA and its award programs, visit NCFAA.org or follow on X at @NCFAA.
The Charlotte Touchdown Club is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1990 for the purpose of promoting high school, collegiate, and professional football in the Charlotte, North Carolina region. Since its inception, the club has grown as well as diversified boasting a sponsor team of more than (80) companies. The Club's activities and services focus community attention on the outstanding Citizenship, Scholarship, Sportsmanship, and Leadership of area athletes and coaches. Through individual and corporate support, more than $3,000,000 has been raised and donated to benefit the Touchdown Club's scholarship efforts.
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Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of 1,300 men and women who cover college football. 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 and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tiger@fwaa.com.