Bruce Carter finalist for Butkus Award, Nate Irving is not. Huh?

By Jeff Gravley
Nov 24, 2010

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The five finalists for the Butkus Award were named today and two ACC linebackers are in line for the award that goes to the nation's top backer.

Boston College's Luke Kuechly leads the ACC and the NATION with 161 tackles so he's a no-brainer to be a finalist.

North Carolina's Bruce Carter is also among the Butkus finalists. He is 36th in the ACC with 57 tackles but is not in the top 10 in either sacks or tackles for loss.

NC State's Nate Irving did not make the final cut of Butkus finalists but deserves to be there more than Bruce Carter. Irving is eighth in the ACC with 85 tackles. He's second in tackles for loss with 19 and ranks in the top ten in sacks with 5.

If you're talking game changing linebackers this season in the ACC Nate Irving tops my list. So why is he not among the five finalists for the Dick Butkus Award? That has an outhouse stench to it.

Butkus Award Collegiate Finalists:
Akeem Ayers, UCLA
Bruce Carter, North Carolina
Justin Houston, Georgia
Luke Kuechly, Boston College
Von Miller, Texas A&M

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RE: Bruce Carter finalist for Butkus Award, Nate Irving is not. Huh?

Nate was selected to Scout.com's All-American list.

Carter was nowhere to be found.

Nate put up better numbers than pretty much ALL the Butkus finalists, especially Carter.

RE: Bruce Carter finalist for Butkus Award, Nate Irving is not. Huh?

Would someone please make a case for Bruce to be in the top 5?

I mean, itemize a list of things that he's done that we didn't already know about before the season began.

I'm sure I will only hear crickets, so I'll start:

1) He's well known to be a great player.
2) He's projected to be a high draft pick.

Oh wait, that was already there before the season began.

RE: Bruce Carter finalist for Butkus Award, Nate Irving is not. Huh?

Has anyone realized they play different linebacker positions and defensive schemes? UNC also couldn't blitz much this year due to cornerback inexperience.... they kept rushing 4 and dropping the rest into coverage. There have been great cornerbacks with poor numbers.... due to the fact opposing teams don't throw the ball to their side of the field. Also, every game I saw, Nate blitzed frequently and as a result would have more tackles and sacks.

Did Nate play with 3rd and 4th string cornerbacks and safeties for most of the year?

Did Nate's starting defensive line lose 2 of their starters and play with 3 rookies frequently?

Bruce's role was more than just making the numbers. It was doing what he needed to do to help his team win. He didn't have the luxury Nate had.

There's lots of factors affecting the numbers. Enron had great numbers, but as we know, numbers don't tell the whole story.

It's obvious, the only people who think Nate Irving should be a Butkus award finalist, are NC State fans. Bruce is recognized by every mock draft I have seen as a 1st rounder which represents more than UNC fans. Why wouldn't the #1 linebacker be on the butkus award list? Has that every happened?
- Posted by scotty8822

In other words, Bruce was in the top-5 from the getgo. Because you sure didn't provide any evidence that he earned anything. Just a bunch of whining about playing with weak corners.

Meanwhile, Nate was out there breaking NCAA records and steamrolling opposing offenses.

I don't question Bruce being deserving. But if he's in the list Nate certainly belonged. I mean, you don't hear many teams out there fighting for their Heisman candidate QB after the team goes 5-7, just because the QB was a good player on a bad team. That's basically what you're saying about Bruce.

Awards like this SHOULD be about their performance on the field. And Nate has outshone Bruce. It's not even up for debate. All Bruce has are theories about teams re-arranging their defense around him, and projected NFL draft status.

And top NFL draft picks are busts, too.

It makes no sense to include Bruce while leaving Nate out in the cold. He EARNED a spot and didn't get it. Bruce didn't earn anything and got it. It's just another silver spoon up the azz of a Carolina player.

RE: Bruce Carter finalist for Butkus Award, Nate Irving is not. Huh?

Jeff Gravley and all the other homers here forgot one thing. Stats don't tell you everything. If you think a stat sheet tells you everything about a LB or any defensive player, there is nothing I can say that will change your mind. Teams had to scheme against a guy like Carter. Even if he doesn't make one tackle in a game you can rest assured he had a major impact on the game. Based on this rationale Colt Brennan should have been the Heisman, maybe Dominique Davis this year at ECU, because he does have the stats you know. Furthermore, if anyone here thinks a stat sheet knows more about football than the Butkus Award committee, you're wrong. Is that hard to congratulate Carter on being a finalist Gravley? What an inflammatory worthless article, gimme a break WRAL.
- Posted by tdouble232323

Correct. I'm sure not a SINGLE team planned around Nate Irving.

RE: Bruce Carter finalist for Butkus Award, Nate Irving is not. Huh?

Has anyone realized they play different linebacker positions and defensive schemes? UNC also couldn't blitz much this year due to cornerback inexperience.... they kept rushing 4 and dropping the rest into coverage. There have been great cornerbacks with poor numbers.... due to the fact opposing teams don't throw the ball to their side of the field. Also, every game I saw, Nate blitzed frequently and as a result would have more tackles and sacks.

Did Nate play with 3rd and 4th string cornerbacks and safeties for most of the year?

Did Nate's starting defensive line lose 2 of their starters and play with 3 rookies frequently?

Bruce's role was more than just making the numbers. It was doing what he needed to do to help his team win. He didn't have the luxury Nate had.

There's lots of factors affecting the numbers. Enron had great numbers, but as we know, numbers don't tell the whole story.

It's obvious, the only people who think Nate Irving should be a Butkus award finalist, are NC State fans. Bruce is recognized by every mock draft I have seen as a 1st rounder which represents more than UNC fans. Why wouldn't the #1 linebacker be on the butkus award list? Has that every happened?
- Posted by scotty8822

It is obvious that this short list was pre determined before the season even started based on hype and "potential." But as we all know hype and potential is the only thing that keeps UNC football in the conversation year, after year, after year.

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