New Mexico’s Brawley is Bronko Nagurski Trophy National Player of the Week

New Mexico’s Brawley is Bronko Nagurski Trophy National Player of the Week

DALLAS (FWAA) – New Mexico safety Austin Brawley provided the Lobos with the decisive score in Saturday’s key 21-16 win over North Dakota State with a pick-six in the fourth quarter, keeping the Lobos unbeaten in the Mountain West. For snagging his second interception of the season plus guiding the defense to perhaps its best showing of the season, Brawley earned the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week for the weekend of Oct. 24 by the Football Writers Association of America.

Each week during the regular season, the FWAA has selected a Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week since 2001. The FWAA and the Charlotte Touchdown Club will announce finalists for the 2026 Bronko Nagurski Trophy on Nov. 19. The national defensive player of the year will be chosen from those finalists who are part of the 2026 FWAA All-America Team and presented with the trophy at the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet on Dec. 7 at the Charlotte Convention Center, and the winner will also be announced on The Home Depot College Football Awards live on ESPN on Dec. 11.

Brawley, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound fifth-year player from Massillon, Ohio who wears one of the Lobos’ 0 jerseys, has been a playmaker all season for New Mexico, which won in front of 34,794 fans, its largest crowd since 2005 in a game without New Mexico State as its opponent. On the game-changing play, Brawley intercepted an NDSU pass with 10:57 to go along the sideline, stayed inbounds and weaved his way into the end zone for his second pick-six of the season to give UNM a 21-9 lead at that point.

The touchdown became the deciding points after a Bison rally brought them within a touchdown. Brawley also recorded three tackles against NDSU, one of them a half-tackle for loss on the game’s opening play. He led a New Mexico defense that held NDSU to 251 total yards, its lowest output of the season and 111 yards below its season’s average.

Brawley has six interceptions in his 12 games with New Mexico, two of them returned for touchdowns and is the MW Defensive Player of the Week for the third time in his career. From his safety position, he is currently sixth on the team in scoring with 14 points. He also scored a safety after blocking a punt out of the end zone in UNM’s win over UTEP, the Lobos’ first blocked punt in 17 seasons. He earned the MW Special Teams Player of the Week following that game.

The Lobos’ third-leading tackler (26.0 total) is one of four FBS players this season with two interception-return touchdowns, and one of three Lobos over the last 50 years to have two interception-return touchdowns in the same season.

After transferring to New Mexico for the 2025 season following three seasons at Ohio, Brawley missed eight games last year with a broken bone in his foot. He made the Mountain West All-Academic Team in 2025 and was a Mountain West Scholar-Athlete in 2025-26.

Brawley is New Mexico’s first player to be honored as the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week since its origin in 2001. The Lobos do not have a Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner in their past.

The Lobos (6-1, 3-0 MW) travel to San Jose State (4-4, 2-2 MW) looking to keep their unblemished conference record intact at 2 p.m. MT game Saturday in a game broadcast on the MW+ Network.

Players may be added or removed from the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list during the season. If a player isn’t already on the preseason watch list, including Brawley this week, each week’s honored player is added at that time.

The FWAA All-America Committee, after voting input from the association’s full membership, selects a 26-man All-America Team and eventually the Bronko Nagurski Trophy finalists. The trophy winner will be chosen from the four finalists named in November. Committee members, by individual ballot, select the winner they regard as the best defensive player in college football.

The FWAA has chosen a National Defensive Player of the Year since 1993. In 1995, the FWAA named the award in honor of the legendary two-way player from the University of Minnesota. Nagurski dominated college football, then became a star for professional football’s Chicago Bears in the 1930s. Bronislaw “Bronko” Nagurski is a charter member of both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses college football’s most prestigious awards. The NCFAA’s 25 awards have honored nearly 1,000 recipients since 1935. Visit NCFAA.org for more information or follow on X at @NCFAA.

The Charlotte Touchdown Club is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1990 for the purpose of promoting high school, collegiate, and professional football in the Charlotte, North Carolina region. Since its inception, the club has grown as well as diversified boasting a sponsor team of more than (80) companies. The Club’s activities and services focus community attention on the outstanding Citizenship, Scholarship, Sportsmanship, and Leadership of area athletes and coaches. Through individual and corporate support, more than $3,000,000 has been raised and donated to benefit the Touchdown Club’s scholarship efforts.

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Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of 1,200 men and women who cover college football. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include game-day operations, major awards and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tiger@fwaa.com.