BATON ROUGE -- LSU senior Marcus Spears has been named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Lineman of the Week following his performance in the Tigers' 26-10 win over Alabama on Saturday, the league office announced on Monday.

Spears was cited by the Louisiana Sports Writer's Association as Louisiana's Defensive Player of the Week on Monday as well.

Spears, a defensive end from Baton Rouge, led a Tiger defense that held the Crimson Tide to just 196 yards of offense, including only 46 yards in the second half on Saturday. Spears finished the contest with eight tackles, two sacks, two tackles for losses, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.

Spears sacked Alabama quarterback Spencer Pennington deep in Crimson Tide territory in the third quarter, forcing a fumble that was picked up by teammate Cameron Vaughn, who raced 8-yards for what proved to be the winning points. That defensive touchdown gave the Tigers their first lead of the contest at 13-10.

In all, led and LSU defense that held the Crimson Tide to only 82 yards rushing and just 196 yards of total offense. Alabama entered the game ranked No. 1 in the SEC in rushing offense with 229.8 yards per game.

For the year, Spears has 35 tackles and ranks second in the SEC with 12 tackles for losses. He ranks seventh in the league with five sacks and he's also returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown.

Well deserved. Wish he had another year or two..... :thumb:

My thoughts exactly! :thumb:

props to ronnie prude for downing the punt at the 2 to enable us to scoop and score. oh yeah, hawthorne called him ali highsmith. He has the most problems with single digit numbers. jack hunt/devery.

Prude was down there early on every punt. Great hustle. I'll have to look at my DVR again but I think he also put on of the bamma coverage guys flat on his back wit a pretty physical hit on one punt return.

i think you're correct. when the secondary was really banged up game 2 or so then RP (the real RP) came in dime situations I was totally impressed with how hard he played. No hesitation and the same thing on special teams. I have been more than impressed with him. Good things to come from this guy. Another unsung guy on defense for sure.