MURFREESBORO – Middle Tennessee sophomore Reed Blankenship has been named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week as announced by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) on Tuesday. On Monday, Blankenship was also named the C-USA Defensive Player of the Week.
Blankenship becomes just the second player in Blue Raider history to earn National Defensive Player of the Week honors and the first one in Conference USA since 2014. Former safety Damon Nickson won the Bronko Nagurski Award in 2006 and, ironically, it was also on October 30.
Blankenship turned in his best game as a Blue Raider in leading Middle Tennessee to a 51-17 victory at Old Dominion on Saturday.