It’s rare enough for freshman to play big time minutes in high level college football, but what’s even more rare is for those freshman to earn awards from the conference. Sure, this is the freshman of the week, but I’d venture that the vast majority of winners of this award are not true freshman. It’s even harder on the defensive side of the ball.
In fact, per the release from Purdue this is the first time a defensive player from Purdue has won this award since 2012 when Frankie Williams won the award following the IU game, obviously the last game of the season.