Woodley Wins 37th Annual Lombardi Award
12/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
HOUSTON, Texas -- LaMarr Woodley (Saginaw, Mich./Saginaw HS), the University of Michigan senior defensive end and co-captain that anchored the Wolverine football team's top-rated defense this season, has been named the winner of the 37th Rotary Lombardi Award. The announcement was made at the annual awards banquet held at the Hilton of Americas.
Woodley
Woodley become the first ever U-M player to capture the prestigious trophy as the nation's top college football lineman, and he is the ninth player from the Big Ten Conference to receive the honor. The previous U-M players to be named Lombardi Award finalists are Mike Hammerstein (1985), John Elliott (1987), Mark Messner (1988), Greg Skrepenak (1991) and Steve Hutchinson (2000).
Woodley was selected over fellow finalists Justin Blalock of Texas, Quinn Pitcock of Ohio State, and Paul Pusloszny of Penn State in a three-stage voting process by the members of the Rotary Lombardi Award Selection Committee.
"It is a great honor to win this award and to be the first Michigan player to receive the honor," said Woodley. "It definitely feels nice and it is a honor that I share with my teammates. To be able to go down in history as the Lombardi Award winner is great, and it will be around at Schembechler Hall for hundreds of years. I knew that it was going to be difficult to win because of the quality of players that were named finalists for this award. I am honored to receive this award."
"I am very happy for LaMarr and what he has achieved," said head coach Lloyd Carr at the award banquet. "He has worked very hard and deserves this recognition. There wasn't a time that LaMarr wasn't giving everything that he had. I think that was really his leadership contribution. Every player on our team knew that the best player on our defense was going to be playing with great effort and great intensity and that carried over throughout our team."
Woodley earlier in the day was named the winner of the Ted Hendricks Award, presented to the outstanding collegiate defensive end for on-field performance, leadership abilities, and contributions to school and community. Woodley was a consensus All-Big Ten first team selection and has been named to the American Football Coaches Association and Rivals.com All-America teams. He was named the National Defensive Player of the Year by Rivals.
The Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Lineman of the Year, Woodley led the conference and lists seventh nationally in sacks this season. He recorded 11 sacks out of 15.5 tackles for loss and 33 total tackles this season. Woodley notched multi-sack performances against Vanderbilt, Central Michigan, Penn State, Iowa and Northwestern. The fourth-year defensive end ranks fifth in the nation with four forced fumbles. Woodley also has four fumble recoveries in 2006, taking one for a 54-yard touchdown return at Notre Dame (Sept. 16). He was named Big Ten Player of the Week for his performance at Penn State and awarded the Master Coaches Survey Game Ball of the Week for his play against Northwestern.
Woodley has been a presence in opposing backfields all four years. His career totals include 23 sacks out of 51.5 tackles for loss and 174 total tackles. Woodley's sack and tackle for loss totals rank seventh and second (respectively) all-time at Michigan. He has a school-record 10 career forced fumbles and has registered five fumble recoveries. He will wrap up his college career on Jan. 1 when No. 3 Michigan meets No. 5 Southern California in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif..
Media Contacts: David Ablauf, Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
