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North Dakota State's Waege up for national college football honor

roger merriam, watertown public opinion
·2 min read
North Dakota State senior defensive end Spencer Waege (left) is one of 30 finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the Defensive Player of the Year in the Football College Subdivision (FCS). The South Shore native is a 2017 Watertown High School graduate.
North Dakota State senior defensive end Spencer Waege (left) is one of 30 finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the Defensive Player of the Year in the Football College Subdivision (FCS). The South Shore native is a 2017 Watertown High School graduate.

FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota State senior defensive end Spencer Waege is one of 30 finalists for national defensive player of the year honors in the Football Championship Subdivision.

The finalists have been announced by Stats Perform.

Waege, a South Shore native and 2017 Watertown High School graduate, is a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award. He has recorded 33 tackles including 16 solos, 13 for a loss, seven quarterback sacks, five quarterback hurries and a fumble recovery in 11 games this season.

The Bison are the No. 3 seed in the FCS playoffs and will host either Southeast Missouri State or Montana in a second-round game on Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Fargodome.

A national media panel will select the winner with voting based on the regular season. The recipients will be announced at the FCS national awards banquet Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas.

NDSU has had nine previous finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award. Defensive end Kyle Emanuel was the 2014 award recipient, The award, fiirst presented in 1995 and in its 28th season, is named for legendary defensive lineman Junious “Buck” Buchanan, who starred at Grambling State as part of his Hall of Fame career. Past recipients include Dexter Coakley, Rashean Mathis, Jared Allen and Arthur Moats.

The other 2022 Buck Buchanan Award finalists:

Defensive Linemen — Ty French of Gardner Webb, Malik Hamm of Lafayette, Jake Heimlicher of Penn, Jay Person of Chattanooga, Caleb Sanders of South Dakota State and David Walker of Central Arkansas.

Linebackers — Joe Andreessen of Bryant, Kelechi Anyalebechi of the University of Incarnate Word (UIW), Johnny Buchanan of Delaware, Rodney Dansby of Houston Christian, BJ Davis of South Carolina State, John Ford II of Tennessee-Martin, Kavian Gaither of Sam Houston, Ryan Greenhagen of Fordham, Aubrey Miller Jr. of Jackson State, Bryce Norman of Southeast Missouri, John Pius of William & Mary, Winston Reid of Webster State, Stone Snyder of Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Chizi Umanakwe of Central Connecticut State, Zeke Vandenburgh of Illinois State, Tristan Wheeler of Richmond and Antoine Williams, Austin Peay.

Defensive Backs — Khalil Baker of North Carolina Central, Luke Glenna of St. Thomas, Robby Hauck of Montana, Marcus Hillman of Elon, Alijah Huzzie of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) and Marte Mapu of Sacramento State.

Stats Perform will also present the Walter Payton Award (FCS offensive player of the year), Jerry Rice Award (FCS freshman player of the year), Eddie Robinson Award (FCS coach of the year) and FedEx Ground Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards.

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Watertown High School graduate one of 30 finalist for FCS award.