Derrick Brown has earned another award that he can add to his Auburn legacy and true freshman quarterback Bo Nix is just getting started.
On Wednesday, the results came out for the end of year SEC awards, as voted on by the league’s coaches. Auburn had two recipients with Brown winning SEC Defensive Player of the Year and Nix winning SEC Freshman of the Year.
Brown was also named the AP SEC Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week along with earning a spot on the AP All-SEC first team.
In his senior season, Brown was dominant on Auburn’s defensive line racking up 12.5 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles this season. Over the course of the season, he won SEC Defensive Player of the Week on three separate occasions.
Nix was Auburn’s first true freshman starting quarterback since 1946. He started in all 12 regular season games and set all of Auburn’s major freshman quarterback records. He set Auburn’s freshman records in passing yards, passing touchdowns and completions. He finished the regular season with 2,366 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns and 200 completions on 351 attempts.
The Pinson Valley native was also named the SEC Freshman of the Week twice this season. His first came against Oregon in the first week when he helped lead Auburn to a comeback win and his second came against Mississippi State. Against the Bulldogs, Nix threw for 335 yards in the 56-23 win.
Brown is the first Auburn player to win a major defensive award in almost a decade, when defensive tackle Nick Fairley took the award home in 2010. And it's Auburn’s first SEC Freshman of the Year honor since 1999, the last being wide receiver Ronney Daniels.
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