‘Just another game’ for humble linebacker Palano, but what a game
Following Boston College’s 28-21 victory over Rutgers on Sept. 11, the Football Writers Association of America named Buffalo Grove High School graduate Anthony Palano its Bronko Nagurski national defensive player of the week.
The Nagurski Trophy is awarded annually to the top defensive player in Division I football. Palano issued an early statement by making his first two college interceptions and nine tackles, including two tackles for loss and a sack. Both tackles for loss came on fourth-down plays.
Palano’s second interception allowed the Eagles to run out the clock against the Big Ten Conference opponent.
“Honestly, it’s pretty cool. It’s something as a kid you always dreamed of,” the 6-foot-1, 230-pound redshirt sophomore linebacker said of earning the weekly award. He also was Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker of the week.
“But I can’t really take credit for it necessarily. I was put in great situations by our coaches, so I’m definitely grateful for that, and then obviously other people freeing me up to make plays, and then executing,” said Palano, an Arlington Heights native.
Palano’s humility does not surprise Buffalo Grove coach Jeffrey Vlk, who called Palano “one of the nicest and most genuine human beings I’ve ever coached.”
Vlk recalled a game in Palano’s senior season in 2023 in which he scored a school-record six touchdowns, since tied by current Bison running back Matthew Kaput.
Vlk relieved his starters and said that during a fourth-quarter timeout Palano was the first to deliver water to Buffalo Grove’s second-teamers. When Palano returned to the sideline he encouraged his fellow starters to support the backups who had cheered for them.
“For a kid to break a school record, score six touchdowns, he could have been looking into the stands, waving to his girlfriend, kissing babies, but instead he decided to cheer on his teammates,” Vlk recalled.
“If you saw that in a movie you’d say that would never happen in real life. But it does with this kid,” Vlk said.
Already named a team captain at Boston College this season since transferring from Washington State after his redshirt freshman year, Palano wears No. 1 as he did at Buffalo Grove, an honorary designation voted upon by Bison players.
Palano opened the season with 13 tackles in a loss to Cincinnati. On Thursday he also gained recognition by the Maxwell Football Club, which gives its own award for the nation’s top defender, the Chuck Bednarik Award.
“This would probably be the best game of my career to date,” Palano said of the win over Rutgers in Massachusetts, where his parents, Marc and Jessica, and sister Gianna watched him play.
A business analytics student at Boston College, Palano was gearing up for Maine on Saturday, “just another game,” he said.
The weekly Nagurski award did not alter his attitude.
“We’re just got to go out there and do our jobs and execute,” Palano said. “It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing. It doesn’t really change how we prepare.”
Linebackers unite
Southern Illinois University linebacker Ben Fiegel (Batavia) was named Missouri Valley Conference defensive player of the week after the Salukis’ 22-18 Week 2 victory at Samford.
A 6-3, 230-pound junior, Fiegel made 10 tackles, 1.5 for loss, and an interception. The interception, SIU’s first of the season and Fiegel’s first in three seasons for the Salukis, created a short field and set up the game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
Auspicious debut
Sydney Gertsen (Montini), a freshman at St. Louis University, was named the Atlantic 10 Conference women’s cross country Rookie of the Week following her collegiate debut earlier this month at the University of Illinois’ Fighting Illini Invitational.
Helping the Billikens to a second-place finish on the 4-kilometer course, Gertsen ran a time of 13 minutes, 30.3 seconds, good for third place individually.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com