Nagurski to BC star

Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly won the Bronko Nagurski Award given to the nation's top college defensive player.

Kuechly received the award at a banquet last night.

The other finalists were Penn State defensive tackle Devon Still, LSU defensive back Morris Claiborne, Alabama defensive back Mark Barron and Illinois defensive end Whitney Mercilus.

The 6-3, 237-pound Kuechly led the nation in total tackles with 191 and solo tackles with 102 and was the only unanimous selection to the all-ACC first-team defense this season.

He was an All-America last year as a sophomore and was a finalist for the Nagurski Award but was beat out by Clemson's Da'Quan Bowers.

In just three seasons, Kuechly became Boston College's all-time leading tackler.

Among the other former Nagurski award winners are Brian Orakpo, Ndamukong Suh, Derrick Johnson, Terrell Suggs, Roy Williams, Dan Morgan, Charles Woodson and Champ Bailey.

Toledo hired offensive coordinator Matt Campbell as its new coach. It's the first head-coaching job for the 32-year-old Campbell, who was named the school's interim on Friday after Tim Beckman announced he was leaving for Illinois.

* Alabama right tackle D.J. Fluker said he will return for his senior season. The 6-6, 335-pound redshirt sophomore said he wanted "to go ahead and put all of [the speculation] to rest and make it clear that my intentions are to stay in school."

* Colorado State has called a news conference for today to introduce its new football coach amid reports that it's Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain. McElwain would replace Steve Fairchild, who was fired last week by new athletic director Jack Graham after going 16-33 in four seasons with the Rams, including three straight 3-9 finishes.

* The Mountain West Conference will ask for an automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series for the 2012 and '13 seasons. BCS rules allow a league without automatic qualifying status to request an exemption for the next two seasons if its teams met certain performance standards from 2008-2011.

The MWC met those standards, with Utah earning an automatic BCS bid in 2008 and TCU earning bids in 2009 and '10.