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Iowa’s Daviyon Nixon named finalist for national award
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Despite having a dominant season for Iowa, Daviyon Nixon has been overlooked nationally. Not anymore.
Nixon is a finalist for the Outland Trophy, given to the nation’s best interior lineman. Two offensive tackles, Liam Eichenberg (Notre Dame) and Alex Leatherwood (Alabama) are finalists along with Nixon, a defensive tackle.
Nixon is the only defensive player named a finalist for an award that has gone to an offensive player four of the last six seasons.
In their assessment on Nixon, the Outland Trophy committee highlighted a truly special season from the Hawkeyes star that included 5.5 sacks during this shortened season:
In just eight games played Nixon led the nation among defensive tackles with 13.5 tackles for loss, clogging the middle on an Iowa defense that was second in the Big Ten in total defense (313.8 ypg), third in scoring defense (16.0) and rushing defense (107.6) and fourth in pass defense (206.1). Nixon is tied for third in tackles for the Hawkeyes with 45 and 22 solos. He opened the season with seven tackles at Purdue and then posted a career-high 11 against division champion Northwestern, and his 71-yard interception return for a touchdown at Penn State remains on network highlight packages.
Last week, Nixon was named Big Ten Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year and the Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year.