WKU’s top pass-rusher will play ball in the Mile High City next season.

Senior defensive end Quanterus Smith was chosen by the Denver Broncos Monday in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He was taken with pick No. 146.

Smith was a force on the WKU line last season, recording 12.5 sacks in 10 games and leading the nation in total sacks for much of the season.

His season came to a premature end, though, when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament against Louisiana-Lafayette in November.

Smith is the first WKU player taken in the NFL Draft since 2003 and the first to be taken since the Toppers moved to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2009.