Nate Landman deserves the praise

BOULDER – Nate Landman needs a new trophy case. In just 48 hours, Landman has raked in virtually every award that was available to him.

But the story of Landman’s big week doesn’t start on Sunday, when Landman was named Walter Camp Football’s National Defensive Player of the Week, or on Monday when he won the Pac-12’s Defensive Player of the Week award and was named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, which is given to the best Linebacker in the nation.

The story doesn’t even start on Saturday, when Landman set a new lifetime best with three sacks in part of his defense’s dominating effort against San Diego State, which resulted in three total points allowed by the defense.

It starts on Thursday.

Thursday was the day that Colorado learned its opponent, USC, did not have enough players to participate in Saturday’s game. The game was called off and, within minutes, a new contest with SDSU was announced.

It wasn’t just any Thursday, either; it was Thanksgiving.

Defensive coordinator Tyson Summers left his family, and within 30 minutes of the news being broken, Summers arrived at his office in the Buffs’ athletics complex.

Nate Landman was already in the building when Summers arrived, watching film with a list of questions for Summers ready to go.

“From a coaching standpoint, that’s what you love,” Summers told reporters Monday, after most of Landman’s accolades had been announced. “You love the guys that eat it up and enjoy it; that want to understand every part of it. He knew his preparation needed to be correct in a short amount of time.”

Summers wasn’t surprised by Landman’s actions. He said he’s seen that behavior from the senior linebacker over his two seasons as Colorado’s defensive coordinator, a period of time in which Summers has gotten to know Landman well. They’ve become in closer this season, as Summers became the team’s inside linebackers coach, meaning he’s spending even more time with Landman.

Summers told another story on Monday, and this one had nothing to do with football.

Summers’ son, Jake, loves fishing. Because Summers is a football coach, he doesn’t have a lot of time to spend fishing with his son.

One day, according to Summers, Landman said, “Coach, drop him by the house and I promise you I’ll take him for five or six hours and we’ll catch a bunch of fish.”

That’s exactly what happened.

Jake caught about 22 fish that day. Landman said they were bass and bluegill.

“There’s not many young men like that – that are that good of people,” Summers said. “It does my heart good.”

Summers was grateful that Landman was willing to take the time to spend a day fishing with his coach’s son.

“And I’ll just say this,” Summers said, “his daddy’s never caught 22 fish combined with him.”

There are plenty of reasons that Landman was acknowledged in the past few day – he’s the most efficient run-stuffer in the country, he’s only missed one tackle this season making him one of the most efficient tacklers in college football, he’s above average in coverage, he’s fourth in the country in solo tackles per game, he’s seventh in sacks per game – but it all starts with his work ethic.

Oh, and Landman isn’t all that concerned with his accolades, either.

“That’s not my main goal,” Landman said on Monday. “My main goal is winning games with this team and getting to the Pac-12 Championship, and whatever comes along with it, comes along with that.”