Luke Kuechly Wins Butkus Award

Boston College LB Luke Kuechly has been named the winner of the 2011 Butkus award as the nation's top linebacker. Kuechly leads all of all college football with 191 tackles this season and his 532 career tackles are ACC and BC records. The junior was second in the voting for the award last year, which was won by Von Miller.

"A lot of people said I got snubbed last year because Von Miller won it, but I don't think I got gypped at all," Kuechly said. "Look at him now. He's the No. 2 draft pick and he's killing it right now in the NFL."

Kuechly was a run away winner in the voting.

He received 58 points and 18 first-place votes. He was followed by Alabama teammates Dont'a Hightower (33 points and 5 first-place votes) and Courtney Upshaw (23 and 3), Manti Te'o of Notre Dame (20 and 1), Lavonte David of Nebraska (16 and 1), and Jarvis Jones of Georgia (14 and 1).

If the Eagles are looking for a LB with their top 12 pick, and they should be, this is obviously a guy that should be a major consideration. As you'll see after the jump, the Butkus award has been a pretty decent predictor of NFL success over the past 10 years or so.

1999 LaVar Arrington Penn State
2000 Dan Morgan Miami
2001 Rocky Calmus Oklahoma
2002 E.J. Henderson Maryland
2003 Teddy Lehman Oklahoma
2004 Derrick Johnson Texas
2005 Paul Posluszny Penn State
2006 Patrick Willis Ole Miss
2007 James Laurinaitis Ohio State
2008 Aaron Curry Wake Forest
2009 Rolando McClain Alabama
2010 Von Miller Texas A&M
2011 Luke Kuechly Boston College