DALLAS (FWAA) – Two fourth-quarter takeaways were the highlights of a tremendous overall game Saturday by Arizona State linebacker Owen Long. The junior’s fumble recovery and interception came late in the Sun Devils’ 24-17 win over Kansas in the Union Jack Classic at London’s Wembley Stadium and led to him being selected as the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week for the weekend of Sept. 19 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 2026 Bronko Nagurski Trophy on Nov. 19. The national defensive player of the year will be chosen from those finalists who are part of the 2026 FWAA All-America Team and presented with the trophy at the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet on Dec. 7 at the Charlotte Convention Center, and the winner will also be announced on The Home Depot College Football Awards live on ESPN on Dec. 11.
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 Long this week – each week’s honored player is added at that time.
Long, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound linebacker from Whittier, Calif., also earned the Big 12’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week award after he made key plays in all parts of the field Saturday. None were more important and timely than his first career interception. Kansas trailed 24-7 and had moved to the ASU 23-yard line with 9:34 left before Long made the pick that would halt Kansas’ rally at that moment.
Long also stopped a Kansas drive earlier in the fourth quarter, forcing and recovering a fumble after the Jayhawks had reached the ASU 22-yard line. It was the third fumble recovery of his career. The takeaways helped allow the Sun Devils to win their first game with fewer than 250 yards of offense since 2019.
The 12 tackles marked Long’s first double-digit tackle game as ASU, and his 11th overall, while doubling his total tackle count to a team-leading 25. Long reached double-digits in tackles 10 times in 2025 playing at Colorado State before transferring to ASU in the offseason. He led the FBS in 2025 in tackles per game and total tackles at 12.6 per game and 151 tackles, almost one full tackle ahead of the next-best per-game mark. He was a first-team All-Mountain West Conference selection.
Long is Arizona State’s third player to be honored as the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week. Former linebacker Caleb McCullough was the last to earn it in 2024, and Terrell Suggs, the eventual 2002 Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner and ASU’s only previous winner, took the honor once during that season as well. Defensive end Derrick Rodgers was a finalist in 1996.
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 trophy winner will be chosen from the four 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 (NCFAA), which encompasses college football’s most prestigious awards. The NCFAA’s 25 awards have honored nearly 1,000 recipients since 1935. Visit NCFAA.org for more information 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 1,200 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.