Daly wins Buchanan Award

PHILADELPHIA -- Bo Beck, the defensive line coach and recruiting coach at Montana State, could have a hard time maintaining what the Bobcats have produced the past two years.

On Monday, Brad Daly became the second consecutive Montana State defensive end to win the Buck Buchanan Award, which honors the outstanding defensive player in the FCS. A year ago, Daly started on the same line with 2012 recipient Caleb Schreibeis.

Daly, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound senior from Helena, Mont., received 64 of the 147 first-place votes and 485 points from a national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries. James Madison linebacker Stephon Robertson finished second with 421 points and Samford linebacker Justin Shade was third with 213 points.

"This is a great honor," Daly said. "I definitely wasn't happy with how the season went for our team [a 7-5 record], but I couldn't have done anything I did without all of the guys on our defense. It was a fun season individually, and it was a fun season with my teammates, hanging out with the guys on the team. Those are my best memories."

Opponents had to account for Daly on every down, and often didn't do it effectively. Using speed and explosion off the line of scrimmage, the Big Sky Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year led the FCS with 14 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss during the regular season. He played with nagging injuries, yet still wrecked opposing offenses with 68 tackles, seven quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles, two blocked kicks and an interception.

Daly became the sixth Buchanan Award winner from the Big Sky in the past 11 seasons.

"I'm really happy for Brad, and really happy for our program," Beck said. "To produce two Buck Buchanan winners in a row is huge. We talked about it one time before the season, and said that no matter who wins an award like this, it's a team accomplishment. It takes everyone in the program and everyone on the defense, and especially every defensive lineman. I know the rest of the guys are extremely proud of Brad, just like Brad and everyone else was extremely proud of Caleb last year."

Georgia Buchanan, whose late husband is the namesake of the award -- the Hall of Famer was the prototype for future NFL defensive linemen -- presented the 19th annual award at The Sports Network's FCS Awards Banquet and Presentation.

2013 BUCK BUCHANAN AWARD VOTING

Finish	Name	School	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total
1.	Brad Daly	Montana State	64	26	16	4	5	485
2.	Stephon Robertson	James Madison	43	28	21	13	5	421
3.	Justin Shade	Samford	4	23	20	14	13	213
4.	Joe Thomas	South Carolina State	6	6	14	12	19	139
5.	Shaquille Riddick	Gardner-Webb	3	12	13	7	8	124
6.	Terrence Fede	Marist	2	12	4	11	13	105
7.	Quinn Backus	Coastal Carolina	2	6	6	11	13	87
8.	Lynden Trail	Norfolk State	3	8	3	12	6	86
9.	Tyler Starr	South Dakota	4	5	8	6	6	82
10.	Jordan Tripp	Montana	2	6	7	5	5	70
11.	Marcus Williams	North Dakota St.	4	4	6	5	5	69
12.	Ronnie Hamlin	Eastern Washington	3	3	7	8	2	66
13.	Davis Tull	Tennessee-Chattanooga	2	4	4	9	7	63
14.	Jerome Couplin III	William & Mary	2	2	4	11	9	61
15.	Caleb Schaffitzel	Missouri State	1	0	5	9	16	54
16.	Zach Hodges	Harvard	2	1	3	1	6	31
17.	Robert Simpson	Mississippi Valley State	0	1	2	2	1	15
18.	Caraun Reid	Princeton	0	0	2	1	4	12
T19.	Clarence Bumpas	Northern Colorado	0	0	1	4	0	11
T19.	Colton Underwood	Illinois State	0	0	1	2	4	11