BATON ROUGE – LSU junior Devin White has been named the winner of the 2018 Dick Butkus Award, presented annually to the top linebacker in college football.

White was presented the 34th-annual Butkus Award on Tuesday afternoon in the team room at Tiger Stadium by Matt Butkus, son of legendary Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus for whom the award is named.

White becomes LSU's first winner of the Butkus Award and winner of the school's 25th national award. White is the first LSU Tiger to claim a national award since Odell Beckham Jr. won the 2013 Paul Hornung Award.

He had to hold back the tears. @DevinWhite__40 is nothing but thankful for his family, coaches, teammates and Tiger fans everywhere. #ForeverLSU pic.twitter.com/YsSCE6K8VO — LSU Football (@LSUfootball) December 5, 2018

White beat out finalists Josh Allen (Kentucky), Devin Bush (Michigan), Tre Lamar (Clemson) and Dylan Moses (Alabama) to claim the honor.

White, who was named first-team All-SEC by the AP and the league's coaches this week, had a career-best 17 tackles and 4.0 tackles for loss, including a sack, and a forced fumble in LSU's season finale against Texas A&M. He was named Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week twice in 2018.

In 2018, White ranks second in the SEC in total tackles with 115 and his 12.0 tackles for loss stands No. 10 in the league. White is only the seventh player in LSU history to record 100 tackles in back-to-back seasons.

Now in his second year as a starting linebacker for the Tigers, White has 278 career tackles to go along with 29.0 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks. He's also responsible for eight takeaways (four fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles and an interception).

Last season, White set an SEC record by being named the league's defensive player of the week four times. He led the SEC in tackles last year with 133, which ranks as the fourth-highest total in school history.

Butkus Award - Collegiate Winners

2018 - Devin White, LSU

2017 - Roquan Smith, Georgia

2016 - Reuben Foster, Alabama

2015 - Jaylon Smith, Notre Dame

2014 - Eric Kendricks, UCLA

2013 - C.J. Mosley, Alabama

2012 - Manti Te'o, Notre Dame

2011 - Luke Kuechly, Boston College

2010 - Von Miller, Texas A&M

2009 - Rolando McClain, Alabama

2008 - Aaron Curry, Wake Forest

2007 - James Laurinaitis, Ohio State

2006 - Patrick Willis, Ole Miss

2005 - Paul Posluszny, Penn State

2004 - Derrick Johnson, Texas

2003 - Teddy Lehman, Oklahoma

2002 - E.J. Henderson, Maryland

2001 - Rocky Calmus, Oklahoma

2000 - Dan Morgan, Miami

1999 - LaVar Arrington, Penn State

1998 - Chris Claiborne, USC

1997 - Andy Katzenmoyer, Ohio State

1996 - Matt Russell, Colorado

1995 - Kevin Hardy, Illinois

1994 - Dana Howard, Illinois

1993 - Trev Alberts, Nebraska

1992 - Marvin Jones, Florida State

1991 - Erick Anderson, Michigan

1990 - Alfred Williams, Colorado

1989 - Percy Snow, Michigan State

1988 - Derrick Thomas, Alabama

1987 - Paul McGowan, Florida State

1986 - Brian Bosworth, Oklahoma

1985 - Brian Bosworth, Oklahoma