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Several Hawkeyes earn post season honors

On3 imageby: Tom Kakert12/07/23HawkeyeReport

It’s post season honors season and the Iowa football team continues to earn plenty of them. On Tuesday it was the Associated Press announcing their All Big Ten squad for the 2023 season and CBS and The Athletic announcing their All American teams.

First, let’s start with the bigger honors, All American designation.

Cooper DeJean was named first team All American by CBS and The Athletic. This was despite missing the last portion of the season with a broken bone in his leg.

The Odebolt, Iowa, native was one of top defensive players in the nation before going down with a season-ending injury in Week 12. He finished the season with 41 tackles, two TFL, two interceptions and five pass breakups in 10 games. DeJean did not allow a touchdown pass in 388 snaps in coverage in 2023.

As a punt returner, DeJean was one of the nation’s best. He had a 70-yard punt return for a game-winning touchdown against Michigan State and he had a second touchdown return for the game-winning score negated because of an “invaild fair catch signal” against Minnesota. DeJean is second in the Big Ten and ranks 14th nationally, averaging 11.5 yards per return. 

DeJean is a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. He also was a finalist for the Bronko Nagurski Award and a semifinalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy. DeJean was named the Tatum-Woodson Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year and the Rodgers-Dwight Big Ten Return Specialist of the Year last month.

Joining him on both first teams was punter Tory Taylor. The Australia, native is leading the Big Ten and ranking fourth nationally with a 47.9 average. Taylor had 86 punts — the most in FBS — in 2023, booming 36 punts 50 or more yards (six punts of 60+), 27 have been fair caught and 30 have been downed inside the 20, 12 inside the 10 and six inside the 5. The Australian, who set the Iowa single-season punt yardage mark for a third straight season and both the career punts and career yardage records, only has six touchbacks in 2023. 

Taylor is a finalist for the Ray Guy Award and was named the Eddleman-Fields Big Ten Punter of the Year last month.

Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins was named second team All American by CBS. Higgins has been a tackling machine for Iowa’s defense, racking up 155 tackles — the most in the Big Ten, the third-most nationally (most by a Power 5 player) and the fourth-most in a single season in school history. The Indianapolis native has led the team in tackles in 11 of 13 games with two 15+ tackle games and nine games with 10 or more stops. He has been a leader on an Iowa defense that is fourth nationally, allowing 13.2 points per game. 

DeJean, Higgins, and Taylor were also named first team All Big Ten by the Associated Press. They were joined by defensive back Sebastian Castro, who earned second team honors. Castro has been a menace in the CASH position, amassing 61 tackles, nine tackles for loss, one sack and a team-best three interceptions. The Illinois native had a 30-yard pick six in Iowa’s road win at Iowa State and he had the game-sealing interception in the road win at Wisconsin.

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