Arizona State LB Owen Long Earns National Honor After Dominant Performance in London

Arizona State linebacker Owen Long’s performance across the pond continues to earn national recognition.

Long was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Football Writers Association of America on Tuesday, two days after helping lead Arizona State to a 24-17 victory over Kansas at Wembley Stadium in London.

The national honor comes one day after Long was also selected as the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week, giving the junior linebacker two major awards following his biggest performance since arriving in Tempe.

Long was seemingly everywhere against the Jayhawks.

The 6-foot-1, 225-pound linebacker finished with a team-high 12 tackles, including nine solo stops, while adding an interception, forced fumble and fumble recovery. The interception was the first of his college career, while he recorded his second career forced fumble and third recovery.

What made the performance particularly impressive was when Long made his biggest plays.

With Kansas driving into Arizona State territory during the fourth quarter, Long forced a fumble at the ASU 22-yard line. The turnover helped swing the game back toward the Sun Devils and set up another Arizona State touchdown.

Long later added his first career interception with Kansas again inside the ASU 25-yard line, shutting down another scoring opportunity.

For a Sun Devils offense that finished with fewer than 250 total yards, those defensive possessions proved critical. It marked Arizona State’s first victory while producing fewer than 250 yards of offense since a 10-7 win over Michigan State in 2019.

Before transferring to Arizona State, the Whittier, California, native led the FBS with 151 tackles at Colorado State in 2025, averaging 12.6 tackles per game. He earned first-team All-Mountain West honors and was named a third-team All-American by The Associated Press.

His production has now followed him to the Big 12.

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham pointed toward something beyond Long’s measurable traits when discussing what has made the linebacker effective.

“Some people have the instincts to make plays,” Dillingham said in a postgame press conference. “He’s one of those guys who has the instinct to make plays.”

Long is also returning to familiar territory.

Before Colorado State and Arizona State, he starred at La Serna High School in Whittier, where he played quarterback and linebacker. Long accumulated 1,749 yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior quarterback while also recording 39 tackles defensively, eventually earning CIF Division 4 Player of the Year honors, and being named to the all-state team on two occasions. He lead his team to a state title in 2023 and was the heart and soul of that team.

Playing quarterback in high school seems to be paying dividends for Long, who hit the ground running at the college level and hasn't slowed down. Seeing the game from the offensive side gave him an understanding of how plays develop, where an offense wants to attack and what a quarterback may be looking for before the snap. That experience appears to have carried over to linebacker, where his ability to diagnose plays and put himself in position to make an impact has become one of his biggest strengths.

Three games into his Arizona State career, Long has already delivered the type of game-changing performance the Sun Devils hoped they were getting from the transfer portal.

And after collecting conference and national recognition within 24 hours, the rest of college football is beginning to take notice, too.

Arizona State enters its bye week at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in Big 12 play before returning to action against Baylor on Oct. 3.

Add us as a preferred source on Google