NATCHEZ — Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh might have gotten an invitation to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist, but as history shows, the big lineman has virtually no chance to win the award.

And that reality is something that Natchez native Hugh Green, one of the most decorated defensive players in college football history, knows all too well.

Green won the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Lombardi Award and was named the Sporting News Player of the year following his senior season of 1980 in which he accounted for 123 total tackles and 17 sacks.

However, Green finished second in the Heisman voting, behind South Carolina running back George Rogers.

Green’s runner-up finish is still the highest ever for a purely defensive player. (Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson won the Heisman in 1997, but he also returned kicks and punts and played some wide receiver).

“I thought I had a great chance to win it,” Green said. “I thought that not only that particular year, but my whole career, I had accomplished what I wanted to personally and team wise.”

Green said the Heisman ceremony wasn’t the same then as it is now, as only the winner was brought to New York City back then to accept the award.

However, the top four finishers, Rogers, Green, Georgia running back Herschel Walker and Purdue quarterback Mark Herrmann were brought to the Big Apple by ABC for a pre-Heisman television show.

And while Green wasn’t selected as the winner by the Heisman voters, the other finalists thought differently.

“We did a vote on that show on who we thought would win the Heisman,” Green said. “The vote was 3-1, with the other three guys voting for me. The only one who voted against me was myself.”

Green didn’t just have a great senior season. He had a brilliant career, starting every game of his career other than the opening game of his freshman season.

He was a three-time first team All-American, finishing his career with 460 total tackles and 53 sacks.

“My Heisman candidacy didn’t start my senior year, but the three years before that,” Green said. “I had a great career as a whole and I thought that carried a lot of weight. At that point in time (me not winning it) verified that no pure defensive player would ever win the Heisman Trophy.”

There has long been a bias against defensive players by Heisman voters. In fact, Suh is the first Heisman finalist since Woodson in 1997 and the first purely defensive finalist since Miami’s Warren Sapp in 1994.

“Even though a lot of people have the theory that defense wins games, the voters want to see offensive productivity,” Green said. “The overall thing is (voters) want to see points, yardage, offensive efficiency, winning percentage and the team playing for the national championship.”

Green said one of the ways a defensive player can make up for not having offensive stats voters like to see is to have their team in position to win a national championship.

And that goes against Suh as well, Green said.

“Nothing negative against (Suh), but they’re not in contention for the national championship,” Green said. “So that’s a difference that everybody sees. If you’re on offense, you can outrush somebody our outpass somebody. Winning is also a category. (Nebraska) as a team or (Suh) as a player didn’t put them in the category to win a national championship.”

And Green said that is something that he did for his team in both his junior and senior years when Pittsburgh finished the season 11-1 and ranked in the top five in the polls.

“If they had a system like they have now, that would have been a plus for us,” Green said. “My junior and senior years, I put our team in position to win the national championship.”