Dec. 7, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Senior defensive end Anthony Weaver, Irish team leader in sacks and tackles for loss, has been named Notre Dame’s 2001 MVP in football by vote of his teammates.
Weaver, from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., received his award from the Notre Dame National Monogram Club. He finished third overall in tackles in ’01 with 59, to go with a team-high seven sacks and 21 tackles for lost yardage. One of four team captains for the Irish in 2001, he started all 11 games this past season and 41 regular-season games in his career.
Weaver also won the Lineman of the Year Award from the Moose Krause Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.
Senior inside linebacker Tyreo Harrison won the Nick Pietrosante Award — also voted on by the players — as the individual who best exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and pride shown by the late Irish All-America fullback. Pietrosante died of cancer on Feb. 6, 1988. Harrison led Notre Dame with 97 tackles in ’01, including a career-high 15 versus Stanford.
Junior center Jeff Faine won the Guardian of the Year Award from the Guardian Life Insurance Company as the top offensive lineman. He led all Irish players in minutes played in ’01, starting all 11 games. He helped pace an Irish offense that averaged 188.2 rushing yards per game to rank 30th nationally.
Center John Crowther received the Knute Rockne Student-Athlete Award from the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley. He owns a 3.677 grade-point average as a finance major in the Mendoza College of Business. The senior from Edina, Minn., served as the Irish special-team snapper in 2001, earning his second monogram in that capacity.
Senior holder Adam Tibble (3.918 as pre-professional major in College of Arts and Letters) earned the Westwood One/State Farm Student-Athlete of the Year Award. The Northville, Mich., product was one of 11 weekly winners announced during Westwood One radio broadcasts of Irish games in 2001.