Tempe, Ariz. ? Minutes after receiving the inaugural Ted Hendricks Award as the nation’s best defensive end, Terrell Suggs announced that he was leaving Arizona State for the NFL draft.

Wide receiver Shaun McDonald also opted to turn pro, disclosing his intentions at a joint news conference Thursday.

“It’s an opportunity right now that I just can’t let pass,” Suggs said. “My mom made a brilliant point about, it’d be kind of hard to come back and do it again. You only can play football for so long before your body takes a beating. I’d rather go right now. There’s really nothing left for me to do in college football.”

Dirk Koetter, who coached the Sun Devils (8-6) to their best season since 1997 in his second year with the program, supported both players in their decision.

“We don’t have any players on the team who don’t have the dream of playing in the NFL,” Koetter said. “The way the rules are, after a guy has completed three years of college, he has a chance to move on, and the NFL basically guarantees them where they’re going to be picked.”

The coach and George Wynn, Arizona State’s director of football operations, helped Suggs and McDonald petition the NFL after the regular season to get draft projections — Suggs in the first round and McDonald in the second — and counseled them about what they might be offered financially.

Suggs is the most decorated player in school history.

The Lombardi and Hendricks awards recipient is a first-team All-American and was selected as the Holiday Bowl MVP and the Pac-10’s Defensive Player of the Year.

He had 24 sacks this season and had a school-record 44 in his career. Suggs also had 31 1/2 tackles for loss, an interception and forced five fumbles this year.

McDonald, Arizona State’s other two-time all-conference selection, set school records with 87 catches for 1,405 yards. His 13 touchdown receptions were one off the school mark.

McDonald, who redshirted as a freshman, is on pace to graduate in May, and Suggs plans to finish his degree as well.

• Rix still No. 1: Quarterback Chris Rix will start again for Florida State during spring drills after his suspension for the Sugar Bowl, coach Bobby Bowden said Thursday.

Rix failed to take a final exam and was suspended for the Sugar Bowl. Fabian Walker made his first college start in a 26-13 Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia on Wednesday. He will be No. 2 and redshirt freshman Wyatt Sexton will be the third-team quarterback in the spring.

• Paterno staying put: After completing his 37th season as Penn State’s coach, Joe Paterno does not intend to retire anytime soon.

“I think as long as I think I can do a decent job, I’ll probably coach a few more,” Paterno said Thursday, a day after his Nittany Lions lost 13-9 to Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. “Whether that’s three years, five years, I don’t know. I certainly have no plan to get out of it.”

Paterno, 76, is under contract through the 2004 season.

• Virginia president apologizes: The president of the University of Virginia apologized Thursday for a halftime performance by the school’s band at the Tire Bowl that mocked West Virginia’s rural image.

West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise had demanded an apology Monday in a letter to John T. Casteen III.

The show, in which West Virginians were depicted wearing overalls and pigtails, “crossed the line between humor and the ridicule that the ACC, the NCAA and simple decency proscribe,” Casteen said.

Ken Haines, the Tire Bowl’s executive director, said Virginia’s band would not be welcome at future Tire Bowls.

• Former Fordham great dead: Al Bart, a member of Fordham’s famed Seven Blocks of Granite defensive line, died at age 87 on Dec. 29. Bart played at Fordham from 1935-37. His teammates on the line were Vince Lombardi and Alex Wojciechowicz, both members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Nat Pierce, Ed Franco, John Druze and Leo Paquin. In his three years at Fordham, the Rams went 18-2-5 and finished his final season ranked No. 3 in the country. He played six years in the NFL.