Vandenburgh Named MVFC Defensive Player of the Week For Fourth Time

ST. LOUIS – For the fourth time this season, senior linebacker Zeke Vandenburgh was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week following a career performance in a win over Western Illinois.

In a season that has been filled with superlatives, Vandenburgh saved the best performance of his career for his final game in a Redbird uniform. The Freeport, Illinois, native set career highs with 17 tackles and 3.5 sacks and tied a career-best with 4.0 tackles-for-loss against the Leathernecks. It marked his second-straight game with 3 sacks or more and marked his third performance of the year with 3 or more sacks in a game. Vandenburgh was also credited with a forced a fumble on one of the sacks of WIU quarterback Henry Ogala.

Vandenburgh ranks No. 1 in the FCS in sacks per game (1.40) and tackles-for-loss per game (2.1). His 14 total sacks also rank first, while he ranks second in total tackles-for-loss with 21.0. He leads the MVFC in both of those categories as well and ranks third in total tackles on the year. 

With his numbers against Western Illinois, Vandenburgh finished the tied for second all-time on the single-season list in sacks with Ray Robinson (2003) and 5th in program history on the single-season list in tackles-for-loss. He also cracked the Top 3 in career sacks with 24.0 (3rd all-time passing Tony Jones) and tackles-for-loss with 43.5 (3rd all-time passing College Football Hall of Famer Boomer Grigsby).

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