Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 93

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number. For more information about the series, click here. To see more entries, click here.

Greatest Husker to wear 93: Ndamukong Suh, Defensive Tackle, 2005 – 2009

Honorable Mention: Travis Hill, Jared Tomich

Also worn by: Damion Daniels, Tom Gdowski, Jon Marco, Brandon Mooberry, Dan Pensick, Rod Reynolds, Tyler Toline, Billy Wade, Kai Wallin, Jerry Wied

Dave’s Fave: Suh

Have you ever noticed how in our current sporting universe, superlatives have started to lose their meaning?

Something is always the biggest, or best, or GOAT-iest of all time. Sports announcers love to shower ridiculous amounts of praise on almost anybody who makes a big play (just listen to Cris Collinsworth call a game). After a while, their attempts to articulate just how athletically gifted a player is turn into white noise. Words like “dominant”, “freak”, and jaw-dropping” start to lose meaning. They’re just another heaping helping of hyperbole during a broadcast.

This phenomenon makes it challenging to accurately describe Ndamukong Suh’s career at Nebraska.

Ndamukong Suh tackles Texas quarterback Colt McCoy during the 2009 Big 12 championship game. | Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images

I can tell you that he’s arguably the greatest defensive lineman – ever – to play college football. I can remind you of his utterly ridiculous 2009 season where his individual stats (82 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, 24 QB hurries, 10 pass breakups, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble, and 3 blocked kicks) were as good as – or better than – the entire defensive lines of the top three teams in 2009*. We can watch highlights from the 2009 Big 12 Championship, where “dominating” doesn’t do his performance proper justice. And on and on.

*I promise you that these numbers are not typos.

2009 Alabama defensive line: 98 tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, 20 QB Hurries, 5 Pass Break Ups, 0 Interceptions, 1 Forced Fumble, and 3 blocked kicks. Alabama won the national championship in 2009.
2009 Texas defensive line: 112 tackles, 22 TFL, 14 sacks, 48 QBH, 5 PBU, 0 INT, 1 FF, 0 blocked kicks. Texas was the 2009 runner up.
2009 Florida defensive line: 116 tackles, 25.5 TFL, 15.5 sacks, 10 QBH, 7 PBU, 0 INT, 2 FF, 0 blocked kicks. Florida won the National Championship in 2008 and finished #3 in 2009.
2009 Ndamukong Suh: 82 tackles, 23 TFL, 12 sacks, 24 QBH, 10 PBU, 1 INT, 1 FF, 3 blocked kicks. 2009 Nebraska finished 10-4, winning the Big 12 North. The Huskers lost the Big 12 Championship game on a field goal when one second was added back onto the clock.

Seriously. Ndamukong Suh – by himself! – had equal or better production than No. 1, 2, and 3 teams. And I could easily make the argument that those numbers don’t fully account for the impact he had on the 2009 Blackshirts becoming one of the greatest defenses in Nebraska history.

Just imagine if the 2009 team had any semblance of an offense…

It is hard to convey the size and scope of Suh’s dominance with regular words. Inventing new words (Suh-perlative?, Ndominating?, Freaktastic?) won’t get the job done either.

So, you’re just going to have to believe me when I say this next sentence is typed with zero hyperbole:

Ndamukong Suh is arguably THE greatest player in Nebraska’s lengthy and successful history.

Texas quarterback Colt McCoy tries to elude Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh during the 2009 Big 12 championship game | Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images

He’s easily the most decorated Cornhusker. In 2009, he won the Outland Trophy, Lombardi Award, Bronko Nagurski Award, and Chuck Bednarik Award. Suh was also a finalist for the Walter Camp National Player of the Year Award and the Lott Trophy.

If Heisman voters were capable of voting for somebody other than the best offensive player on one of the top two teams, he would have won that trophy too. Suh finished fourth, one of the best results ever for a defense-only player.

***

My initial plan was to use this space to remember a favorite play / moment from Suh’s time at Nebraska.

The challenge is figuring out which one.

We could spend the rest of the day recapping how Suh absolutely destroyed Texas’s offensive line and threw Colt McCoy around like a rag doll. Twelve tackles, six for loss, with 4.5 sacks. And let’s be honest: those video game numbers don’t do justice to how much he dominated the No. 3 team in the nation. It looked like a five-time Pro Bowl player against a junior high team. You’ll never see a more dominating performance from a defensive player.

At Mizzou in 2009, Ndamukong Suh was unstoppable as the monsoon rains that fell all night. Six tackles, a sack, interception, forced fumble, and a pass breakup. That Thursday night ESPN game was Suh’s coming out party for a large portion of the country.

A sleeper pick is the time Suh almost sacked a quarterback without touching him. In the 2009 Oklahoma game, Suh drove tackle Jarvis Jones – a 6’7″ 277-pound behemoth of a man – seven yards backwards, into the lap of quarterback Landry Jones. Hurried by his tackle’s backside, Landry Jones managed to throw the ball away. But Suh finished the play by shoving Jarvis into his quarterback.

There’s a similar play in the 2007 USC State game. The ball is snapped at the 37. The Trojan running back takes the handoff at the 42… and is tackled at the 44 for a seven-yard loss. Suh tackled him with his left arm, because his right was still engaged with the guard Suh had pushed back 21 feet. Teams struggled to deal with his brute strength.

As a fan of fullbacks, I definitely know that Suh caught a pass out of the backfield for a touchdown against Kansas – one of three touchdowns he scored in his career. Suh had a 49-yard pick six against San Jose State.

Ndamukong Suh brushes aside Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins en route to a touchdown on an interception return in 2008. | Bruce Thorson-Imagn Images

Let’s close with the unforgettable finish to the 2008 Colorado game. Alex Henery had just hit a school record 57-yard field goal to take a two-point lead. NU kicked off. On second down Zach Potter tipped a Cody Hawkins pass. Suh caught it and rumbled 30 yards for the game-clinching touchdown, trucking Hawkins – the son of Colorado’s head coach – in the process.

Memorial Stadium – stilling buzzing after The Kick – went into absolute delirium. My favorite part of that play is Suh glancing back at trampled wreckage of Cody Hawkins with a “did I step on something?” look.

There will never be another Ndamukong Suh.

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