Shatel: Suh’s legacy is beyond awards

Congratulations to Mark Ingram, this year’s winner of the Heisman Trophy Offensive Player of the Year Award.

The most outstanding player in college football did not win the award for the most outstanding player in college football. But that’s strictly an opinion, one that was outvoted by hundreds of other opinions.

Ndamukong Suh didn’t win the Heisman. But, my, was he ever a winner this week. On Saturday night, too.

It’s a victory for a defensive tackle to merely be invited to this annual celebration of all things quarterbacks, running backs and receivers. For a mudder — even one as talented as Suh — to finish fourth in the voting, that’s like winning.

That’s the system, folks. But we’re not here today to lament what might have been.

We’re here to celebrate this wonderful ride that Suh took us on in 2009. And try to put into perspective what we just witnessed.

What a ride. Week by week, Suh kept pushing the envelope, upping the ante, breaking through offensive lines and barriers as he went. It culminated in a surreal Saturday night, where folks throughout Nebraska set their clocks, shopping and parties around the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Wherever you were, you stopped. You watched. You hoped and prayed. Everywhere you went this week, somebody was asking, “Do you think he can win it?’’ It was like its own sporting event.

And now that the ride is about to end, it’s safe to ask: What exactly did we just see?

Greatest defender in college football history? Greatest season by a defender ever? Greatest Nebraska defender?

I don’t believe in “greatest ever’’ when it comes to athletes. There are too many inequities over eras. For me, the great ones are part of an overall conversation; on the top shelf, etc.

Well, Suh is a unique case. He might need his own shelf. He probably deserves his own branch on the NU family tree.

What’s his legacy? I don’t think that we’ll have a proper context on it for a while, maybe several years. I think that it will take a while for Suh’s place in history to sink in.

Did Suh jump-start Bo Pelini’s program? Will he do for Pelini’s defense what a great quarterback or running back could do for recruiting to an offense? He has the potential for a long, successful career in the NFL. Will he be known as the “greatest NFL player from Nebraska,’’ supplanting Roger Craig or Bob Brown or Will Shields?

We won’t know those answers for several years, but here’s an early stab at finding a place for Suh in Nebraska history.

I think that there’s a top shelf. The three Heisman winners — Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch — are on that shelf. So is Tommie Frazier, a Heismanesque player if we ever saw one, who set his own standard. And Rich Glover, an Outland-Lombardi winner who finished third in the Heisman voting in 1972.

I would put Suh on that shelf, ahead of Grant Wistrom, Dave Rimington and Dean Steinkuhler.

Suh vs. Glover is too close to call. But I’d give Suh a nod for three reasons: 1) His ability to change games with his hands (interceptions, blocked kicks); 2) he faced more double-teams and extra blocking than Glover, who played in the middle of a five-man front and saw more man-on-man blocking; and 3) he did his damage on a 9-4 team.

Suh was surrounded by good, not great, players. Look at all of NU’s elite players since the Bob Devaney era started; they were on great teams, championship teams. Suh is the only superstar-type player since 1962 to not be part of a conference champion.

He came within one second of that, but if it had happened, it would have cemented his status even more, considering the one-dimensional make-up of the 2009 Huskers.

That lack of championship pedigree makes what Suh accomplished this season all the more astounding.

History and legacy and all that jazz will sort itself out later. For now, Suh’s immediate impact is clear.

He’ll leave without a championship ring, but his play no doubt will inspire a renaissance of great defense and teams at Nebraska. If and when the championships return to Lincoln, Suh will have been his own cornerstone. Heck, he might even be worth two.

You know what else he did? He turned the light back on. It has been too long since we’ve seen true greatness on the Nebraska football field. We watched Suh in the rain and heat and under the brightest lights, making like a one-man wrecking crew and throwing quarterbacks around and literally picking up this program and taking it with him. Along the way, he reminded us of the greatness that once was at NU — and can be there again.

There are countless numbers of trophies and awards in college football, and at Nebraska, for everyone but the team manager. There are too many and yet there has to be room for one more, a new one. The Ndamukong Suh Award. Give it to “the player who impacts and inspires.’’ Or to “the greatest player to not win the Heisman.’’

I think that I know who gets the first one.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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