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WE ARE Linebacker U, so we'll start there. To the surprise of absolutely no one paying attention, Michael Mauti was named the Butkus-Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year in the conference, as well as being the only linebacker to be named to both the Coaches' and the Media All-Big-Ten team. A bit more surprising on the LB front, however, was the exclusion of teammate Gerald Hodges from both first team lists; Hodges was instead relegated to the 2nd team by both the coaches and the media after being on the first team in 2011 as a junior.
The other big award for the Nittany Lions went, again to the surprise of no one, to sophomore wide receiver Allen Robinson, who won the Richter-Howard Wide Receiver of the Year award, and was also a consensus first team selection.
Jordan Hill continued the run of LJ-coached linemen making a big impact on the defensive line as the third consensus first team Penn Stater, and the only consensus defensive lineman.
Other Nittany Lions named to the first team this year were C Matt Stankiewitch (Coaches), G John Urschel (Coaches) (I love him), and TE Kyle Carter (Media). As mentioned above, Hodges was a consensus second-team selection, the only one on the team.
Honorable mentions on the Penn State squad include QB Matthew McGloin, T Mike Farrell, RB Zach Zwinack, DE Deion Barnes, DE Sean Stanley, DB Adrian Amos, and CB Stephon Morris.
The other awards of the season went to OSU's Braxton Miller (Griese-Brees Quarterback of the Year), Wisconsin's Montee Ball (Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year), Wisconsin's Jacob Pederson (Kwalick-Clark Tight End of the Year), Iowa's Micah Hyde (Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year, OSU's John Simon (Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year), Michigan's Taylor Lewan (Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year), Michigan's Will Hagerup ( Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year Award), and both Nebraska's Brett Maher and Northwestern's Jeff Budzien (Bakken-Andersen Kicker of the Year).
The Big Ten Coach of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Players of the year, and Freshman of the year awards will be announced tomorrow night at 7; for what it's worth, BTN.com named Bill O'Brien its coach of the year, and Barnes its freshman of the year.
See the full rundown of all the Nittany Lions included, as well as highlight videos for all honored Nittany Lions, over on gopsusports.com.
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