Young, Bush take home top awards

The Texas quarterback won the Maxwell Award as the nation's top player.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Texas quarterback Vince Young and Southern California tailback Reggie Bush each took home two awards Thursday night, one as best player in the nation and one for being the best at his position, as college football honored its stars.
Young won the Maxwell Award as the nation's top player and the Davey O'Brien Award given to the nation's top quarterback.
Bush came away with the Walter Camp player of the year award and the Doak Walker Award given to the nation's best running back.
"I'm just enjoying the moment right now," Young said. "All of these awards mean a great deal to me, because of all of the hard work that me and my teammates have put in this year. I guess we've got another one to go [the Heisman] on Saturday."
Finalists for Heisman
Young and Bush will be in New York on Saturday night as finalists for the Heisman Trophy. USC quarterback Matt Leinart is the other Heisman finalist.
Young beat out Bush and Leinart for the Maxwell, and Leinart and Notre Dame's Brady Quinn for the O'Brien. Young was the first Texas quarterback to win the award.
"This award [Maxwell] means a whole lot because people doubted me about being a quarterback and thought I should have been moved to another position," Young said. "I wanted to show the world how good a quarterback I could be. If this doesn't silence those critics, then I'll just go back to work and try to fix whatever I need to fix."
The Texas junior leads the nation in passing efficiency with a 168.6 rating. He has passed for 2,769 yards and 26 touchdowns, and leads the Longhorns in rushing with 850 yards.
Joins former Trojans
Bush joined former Trojans O.J. Simpson (1967 and 1968), Charles White (1979), Marcus Allen (1981) and teammate Leinart (2004) as Camp winners.
The 6-foot, 200-pound Bush has rushed for 1,658 yards and scored 18 touchdowns this season, averaging 8.9 yards a carry for the top-ranked Trojans. The junior also has 31 receptions for 383 yards, and is averaging 217.6 all-purpose yards per game, tops in the nation.
"I guess I'm the best running back, at least this year," Bush said. "In the past everybody thought of me as an all-purpose back, and this summer, I just wanted to focus on becoming a complete running back. First and foremost, I would like to be known as a great running back. It's a great honor to win that award."
He became the first USC player to win the Doak Walker Award. The other finalists were Washington State's Jerome Harrison and Memphis' DeAngelo Williams.
Bush and Leinart will face Young and second-ranked Texas in the Rose Bowl for the national title on Jan. 4.
Paterno named
Penn State coach Joe Paterno, 78, won the Home Depot coach of the year award, for turning around the Nittany Lions after four losing seasons in the last five years.
"I actually feel kind of embarrassed to win this award with guys like [Texas'] Mack Brown and [Notre Dame's] Charlie Weis right here," said Paterno, who has won coach of the year four times. "I would have voted for either one of those two."
The leader of Paterno's stingy defense, linebacker Paul Posluszny, won the Chuck Bednarik Trophy, given to the best defensive player in the country. The other finalists were Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk and Maryland linebackers D'Qwell Jackson.
The resurgent Nittany Lions (10-1), who won seven games the past two seasons, won the Big Ten and will play in the Orange Bowl against Florida State.
Posluszny ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 111 tackles and an average of 10.1 tackles per game. He has recorded 11 tackles for a loss and three sacks.
Thorpe award to Huff
Texas safety Michael Huff won the Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in the country, becoming the first Longhorns player to do so.
Mike Hass, the NCAA's leader in receiving yards (139.3 per game), beat out Dwayne Jarrett of Southern California and Jeff Samardzija of Notre Dame for the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best wideout.
Minnesota center Greg Eslinger won the Outland Trophy as the country's best lineman, Oregon State's Alexis Serna took the Groza Award as the nation's top kicker. Wake Forest punter Ryan Plackemeier was the Ray Award winner.
The Disney Wide World of Sports Spirit Award went to the Tulane team, which was forced off its campus by Hurricane Katrina and played 11 games in 11 stadiums this season.
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