HOUSTON — Ndamukong Suh added to his trophy case Wednesday night, winning the Lombardi Award.

He joins Rich Glover (1972), Dave Rimington (1982), Dean Steinkuhler (1983) and Grant Wistrom (1997) from Nebraska as Lombardi winners, given to the nation’s top lineman.

Big names. Big night.

But in this week of collecting trophies, Suh has taken time to apologize to fellow Lombardi Award finalist Jerry Hughes of TCU for not beating Texas in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday.

Suh was chasing Colt McCoy with seconds left in the game when McCoy threw the ball away. The clock elapsed, but a review ruled there was a second remaining. The Longhorns kicked a field goal for the 13-12 win.

A loss could have given undefeated TCU a spot in the national title game. Instead, Texas will face Alabama.

“I wish I didn’t get to him,” Suh said. “I pushed him down and forced him to throw that ball away. I should’ve let him run around a little bit longer, then we wouldn’t have had to worry about trying to block a field goal.”

Suh delivered his regrets to Hughes earlier in the week when the two were up for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy. Suh also won the Nagurski Trophy as the nation’s top defensive player, and is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.

“I told him, ‘No apology needed, you did everything you could,”’ Hughes said. “We were all rooting for Nebraska, obviously. One second from probably going to the national championship game, that’s not too bad, you know?”

Alabama’s Terrence Cody and Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma were the other Lombardi finalists.

In the Big 12 championship game, Suh had a career-high 12 tackles, including a school-record seven tackles for losses and 4½ sacks. He wasn’t sure how much his performance against the Longhorns contributed to the number of individual honors he’s received this week.

“I went out in that game and all I wanted to do was come out with the Big 12 championship ring. And unfortunately it ended the way it did and I didn’t get a chance to do that,” he said. “I don’t know exactly how much that weighed into it, maybe a little bit, maybe a lot.”

Nebraska’s five Lombardi awards are the second-most by one school in the 40-year history of the award, trailing only Ohio State’s six.

Suh, who attended the Houston ceremony with his parents and NU defensive coordinator Carl Pelini, said Nebraska’s history of having great defenses was one of the major reasons he chose the school.

“We were kind of in the dumps when I was getting recruited, a couple of bad years had come before ... I wanted to be part of a unit or a class that started to bring that program back,” he said. “My class leaving this year, I think, has helped that process tremendously. I hope we have. We’re not quite there, but you’re starting to see the ‘Blackshirts’ again, for sure.”

Suh certainly is validating his argument as one of the all-time Nebraska greats.

“To me, he has already solidified his legacy as one of the great players in Husker history,” NU defensive assistant coach John Papuchis said. “There’s been a lot of great players, but he should be right up there. He’s been everything we asked of him and more.”

Suh said winning the award was a “total surprise.”

“In my eyes this is a very huge one, especially at my position,” he said. “The guys that are the unsung heroes in college football and football all-around, guys that just do the dirty work and get the job done for everybody else are the defensive linemen and offense linemen.”

Staff writers Mitch Sherman and Dirk Chatelain contributed to this report.

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