Dec. 13, 2007

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - For the sixth-straight season Illinois State had a representative among the top-5 finishers for the Buck Buchanan Award, an honor presented to the top defensive player competing in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, as Redbird senior linebacker Kye Stewart (Nashville, Tenn./Pearl-Cohn HS) placed fourth on the 2007 final tally Thursday night.

Montana defensive end Kroy Biermann won the award, which was announced at the Sports Network FCS Awards Dinner. Stewart finished with 102 points, among the 105 casted ballots by a panel of sports information directors and selected media.

With his fourth-place effort, Stewart follows in the footsteps of Cameron Siskowic, who finished fifth in the voting last season, Brent Hawkins, who was runner-up in 2005, and Boomer Grigsby, a three-time finalist who was runner-up in 2003 and finished third in both 2002 and 2004.

Stewart led the Gateway Football Conference in tackles, after finishing runner-up in 2006. Stewart, a 2007 Walter Camp Football Foundation All-American, earned first-team all-league honors for the second-straight year in 2007 and finished with 131 tackles on the season. He posted double-digit tackle totals in every game but two, and matched his career-high with 17 takedowns against Western Illinois.

The Redbird linebacker was the only Gateway representative to receive votes.

2007 Final Buchanan Award Voting