MANHATTAN – Kansas State sophomore defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah earned his third honor this week and second of the national variety as he was named the Bednarik Award Player of the Week, the Maxwell Football Club announced Tuesday.
Anudike-Uzomah earned Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week honors on Sunday, while he was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
Anudike-Uzomah came away with a school-record tying 4.0 sacks, two forced fumbles and eight total tackles to help K-State earn a convincing 31-12 victory over TCU. Anudike-Uzomah tied the school’s single-game sack record originally set by Chris Johnson at Missouri in 2000, while it was the second time this season he forced a pair of fumbles.
At one point during the game, Anudike-Uzomah had sacks on three-straight defensive plays as he finished the first half with sacks on consecutive plays before tallying one on K-State’s first defensive snap of the third quarter. He and Johnson are the only two players in school history to accomplish the feat.
A product of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Anudike-Uzomah was close to tying the all-time FBS record for single game sacks. His two forced fumbles came on potential sacks that caused the ball to be recovered beyond the original line of scrimmage, thus making them rushes instead of sacks by NCAA rule. If the ball had been recovered on the TCU side of the line – regardless of who recovered – those two would have been counted as sacks to give him six on the day to tie a FBS record and break the Big 12 mark.
Entering play this week, Anudike-Uzomah ranks second in the nation in sacks (10.0) and forced fumbles (4), leading the Big 12 in both categories. Additionally, he is 13th in tackles for loss (11.5), which is also tops in the Big 12. With four regular-season games remaining, Anudike-Uzomah is just 1.5 sacks shy of tying the school record for single-season sacks.
Earlier this year, Anudike-Uzomah tallied 3.0 sacks against Southern Illinois. He is the first player in school history with at least 3.0 sacks in two different games during a season, while he is the only player in the nation to accomplish the feat this year.
Kansas State travels to Lawrence on Saturday to face Kansas in the 119th edition of the Dillons Sunflower Showdown. The game, which kicks off at 11 a.m., inside Memorial Stadium, will be shown on FS1. The Wildcats then return home to take on West Virginia at 11 a.m., on Nov. 13. Tickets to the game against the Mountaineers can be purchased at www.k-statesports.com/tickets or by phone at 1-800-221-CATS.