Buck Buchanan Award

The Buck Buchanan Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding defensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football, and was first given in 1995 after the Walter Payton Award was designated solely for offensive players.^[1]

Buck Buchanan Award

Awarded for	Most Outstanding Defensive Player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision
Country	United States
Presented by	Stats Perform
History
First award	1995
Most recent	Zeke Vandenburgh, LB, Illinois State
Website	www.fcs.football

The award is named to honor the late Buck Buchanan.

It was named in honor of Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Buck Buchanan, who starred at Grambling State University. Buchanan was an All-American defensive lineman and the first overall pick in the 1963 American Football League (AFL) Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs.^[1]

Up until 2015, the Payton and Buchanan Awards were awarded by The Sports Network. Since STATS LLC, now known as Stats Perform, acquired The Sports Network in February 2015, it has presented all of the major FCS awards. Through the 2011 season, the awards were presented the night before the NCAA Division I Football Championship, but the 2012 awards were presented on December 17, nearly three weeks before that season's championship game.^[2]

Winners

Year	Winner	School	Position
1995	Dexter Coakley	Appalachian State	LB
1996	Dexter Coakley (2)	Appalachian State	LB
1997	Chris McNeil	North Carolina A&T	DE
1998	James Milton	Western Illinois	LB
1999	Al Lucas	Troy State	DT
2000	Edgerton Hartwell	Western Illinois	LB
2001	Derrick Lloyd	James Madison	LB
2002	Rashean Mathis	Bethune–Cookman	CB
2003	Jared Allen	Idaho State	DE
2004	Jordan Beck	Cal Poly	LB
2005	Chris Gocong	Cal Poly	DE
2006	Kyle Shotwell	Cal Poly	LB
2007	Kroy Biermann	Montana	DE
2008	Greg Peach	Eastern Washington	DE
2009	Arthur Moats	James Madison	DE
2010	J. C. Sherritt	Eastern Washington	LB
2011	Matt Evans	New Hampshire	LB
2012	Caleb Schreibeis	Montana State	DE
2013	Brad Daly	Montana State	DE
2014	Kyle Emanuel	North Dakota State	DE
2015	Deon King	Norfolk State	LB
2016	Karter Schult	Northern Iowa	DE
2017	Darius Jackson	Jacksonville State	DE
2018	Zach Hall	Southeast Missouri State	LB
2019	Dante Olson	Montana	LB
2020	Jordan Lewis	Southern	DL
2021	Isaiah Land	Florida A&M	LB
2022	Zeke Vandenburgh	Illinois State	LB

Awards won by school

This is a list of the colleges and universities who have had a player win a Buck Buchanan Award. Cal Poly (2004, 2005, 2006) is the only program with three winners. Appalachian State (1995–1996), Eastern Washington (2008, 2010), James Madison (2001, 2009), Montana (2007, 2019), Montana State (2012–2013), and Western Illinois (1998, 2000), are the only schools to win the award twice. Dexter Coakley of Appalachian State is the only player to win the award twice.

School	Awards
Cal Poly	3
Appalachian State^	2
Eastern Washington
James Madison^
Montana
Montana State
Western Illinois
Bethune–Cookman	1
Florida A&M
Idaho State
Illinois State
Jacksonville State^
New Hampshire
Norfolk State
North Carolina A&T
North Dakota State
Northern Iowa
Southeast Missouri State
Southern
Troy State^

^ Team is now a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

References

1. . The Sports Network. Archived from the original on 2011-04-04. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
2. . The Sports Network. December 17, 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-08-22. Retrieved December 18, 2012.

External links

• - Past winners from The Sports Network