IOWA FOOTBALL PLAYERS EARN POSTSEASON AWARDS

Good news is rolling in for members of the Iowa football team as we await for confirmation of Iowa’s bowl destination.

Monday afternoon gave us news of postseason awards for three Iowa football players: Josey Jewell was given the Jack Lambert Award, and AJ Epenesa and Alaric Jackson were named to the Big Ten Network’s all-freshman offensive and defensive teams.

Jewell is the first Hawkeye to earn the award (founded in 1991). If you’ve never heard of the Lambert Award — presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus — it’s probably because it seems to pride itself on no-frills recognition? The masthead on the site preaches No watch lists, no finalists, just winners. That’s kind of cool if you ask me!

Past winners of the award include Ben Boulware, Von Miller, EJ Henderson, Jonathan Vilma and Luke Kuechly. Pretty good company!

Jackson and Epenesa, meanwhile, were named first-teamers to BTN’s all-freshman team. TJ Hockenson, Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Tristan Wirfs garnered honorable mention status.

We look forward to updating you as more and more Iowa players earn postseason awards (looking at you, Josh Jackson). We’ll have a story stream for you once I figure out how to do a story stream.

Update:

Before I could even publish this post, Josh Jackson was given the Jack Tatum Award, also presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus. The Tatum is awarded to the best defensive back in the nation, which makes sense, because it’s named after Jack Tatum.

Desmond King was also the recipient of the Tatum Award back in 2015, the same year he won the Thorpe Award. Jackson, as you know, is a finalist for the Thorpe as well.

We look forward to giving you more updates.

Another update

The Big Ten announced its all-conference honorees for defense and special teams today. Of course, Iowa players got some love. From coaches and the media!

Jewell and Jackson are unanimous first-team picks for coaches and the media, while Anthony Nelson earned third-team honors from the media.

Miles Taylor is also Iowa’s representative for sportsman honoree.

There will be more awards coming.