This marks the fourth national honor this week for freshman Nick Andersen.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest Football freshman defensive back Nick Andersen earned his fourth national award of the week on Thursday, being named the Jim Thorpe National Player of the Week.
This week Andersen has earned Bronko Nagurski, Walter Camp and College Sports Madness National Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Andersen, who made his second consecutive start at safety on Saturday against No. 19 Virginia Tech, became the first Wake Forest player since A.J. Greene in 1987 to intercept three or more passes in a single game. He was also the first ACC player to have three or more interceptions since Louisville's Gerod Holliman in 2014.
The Clifton, Va. native sealed the win over the nationally-ranked Hokies with six seconds remaining in the game with his third interception of the day. He is just the fourth player in program history to have three or more interceptions and is the first true freshman to do so.
Not only did he record three interceptions, he turned in a team-high, game-high and career-high 11 total tackles including nine solo tackles. He became the first ACC player since 2008 to record 10 or more tackles and three interceptions in the same game.
Andersen was key in keeping Kahlil Herbert, the national all-purpose yards leader, in check.
Herbert came in averaging 240.5 all-purpose yards per game. Andersen and the Wake defense held him to 87 all-purpose yards. He also came in averaging 148.0 yards per game and 9.7 yards a carry. Led by Andersen's effort, the defense held him to just 64 yards (3.4 average) in the game.
