June 20, 2006
Senior Victor Abiamiri has been mentioned as a preseason candidate for the 2006 Ted Hendricks Defensive End of the Year Award. The award is named in honor of college football’s first three-time first-team All-American and member of both the college and professional football halls of fame.
Abiamiri has been a key member of Notre Dame’s defensive line since his freshman season in 2003. Just the fourth true freshman to start on the defensive line for Notre Dame since 1991, the Randallstown, Md., native played in all 12 games in ’03, earning honorable mention freshman All-America honors from Rivals.com. He returned in 2004 and played in all 12 games, collecting six tackles for a loss and two sacks.
Abiamiri enjoyed a career season in 2005, earning the team’s Lineman of the Year Award from the Moose Krause Chapter of the National Football Foundation. He finished the ’05 season with 48 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, a team-high eight sacks and seven quarterback hurries. One of his signature performances was against Stanford, when he led the team with 10 tackles including back-to-back sacks to end the Cardinal’s final scoring threat. He needs just half a sack and five tackles for a loss in ’06 to enter Notre Dame’s all-time top 10 in both categories.
On field performance, exceptional winning attitude, leadership abilities and contributions to school and community and academic preparedness are some of the criteria used to determine the Ted Hendricks Defensive End of the Year Award. The candidate’s primary position must be defensive end. Previous award recipients included Terrell Suggs (Arizona State), David Pollack (Georgia) and Elvis Dumervil (Louisville).
Abiamiri joins teammates Ryan Harris (Outland), Brady Quinn (Maxwell), Jeff Samardzija (Maxwell) John Sullivan (Rimington), Darius Walker (Maxwell) and Tom Zbikowski (Churck Bednarik, Bronko Nagurski) as Irish players named to various watch lists for major college football awards in 2006.