Maxwell Football Club to honor Penn Staters

Penn State's Joe Paterno and Paul Posluszny are among the major award winners who will be honored tonight at the 69th Maxwell Football Club Awards Banquet. The sold out event will be held at Harrah's in Atlantic City, N.J.

Paterno will receive the George Munger Award as College Coach of the Year for the third time in the award's 17-year existence. He also won the honor in 1990 and '94.

Posluszny will be presented with the Chuck Bednarik Award, given the nation's top defensive player. A consensus All-American, he previously won the Butkus Award as the nation's premier linebacker. Posluszny joins All-America linebacker LaVar Arrington as Nittany Lions who have won the Bednarik Award during its 11-year existence.

The Maxwell honor is one of Paterno's seven national Coach of the Year accolades following an 11-1 season. He also was named the Dave McClain Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading Penn State to the conference title and a berth in the FedEx Orange Bowl.

During the 2005 season, senior defensive end Tamba Hali was a consensus All-American and Posluszny was a consensus All-American and a first team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American.

A junior, Posluszny is the 12th linebacker to earn first team All-America honors under Paterno, joining a group that includes: Dennis Onkotz, Jack Ham, Greg Buttle, Shane Conlan, Brandon Short and Arrington as first team All-Americans.