Two Iowa Hawkeyes, Cooper DeJean and Tory Taylor, named Unanimous All-Americans

Cooper DeJean and Tory Taylor have done it! The two Iowa Hawkeyes have immortalized themselves as unanimous All-Americans.

Unanimous All-American.

There are few higher distinctions and ranks that can be achieved at the collegiate level for an athlete than the title of unanimous All-American. Not only did one major publication view you as the elite of the elite, but all five unanimously agreed that you were the best.

That means you were deemed the best of the best by the Associated Press, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Sporting News, and the Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF). You were given the nod by both the media members and former and present coaches.

It is an honor only reserved for the cream of the crop, and this year, both Hawkeyes, Cooper DeJean and Tory Taylor, are on that immortal list. Their consensus All-American status was upgraded to unanimous with the release of the AFCA All-America team on Thursday. They are the 16th and 17th Hawkeyes to receive such status. It is the fourth straight year that an Iowa Hawkeye was a unanimous All-American.

Cooper DeJean earns the accolade after “only” collecting first-team All-Big Ten status last season. A finalist for both the Jim Thorpe Award the and Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the junior defensive back was one of the top defensive players in the nation.

A first-team All-Big Ten member as both a defender and a returner, DeJean captured both the Tatum–Woodson Defensive Back of the Year as well as the Rodgers–Dwight Return Specialist of the Year for the Big Ten.

For Tory Taylor, this is a recognition long overdue. While receiving the spotlight of both the Iowa fanbase and the national media at large, Taylor just barely missed consensus All-American status last year. He received the nod from FWAA, Phil Steele, and Pro Football Focus who were the only ones to get it right.

Phil Steele also named him a first-team All-Big Ten member last year alongside the media. Still, some got it wrong, such as the coaches who listed him as a third-team All-Big Ten member and the Ray Guy Award who didn’t even include Taylor as a finalist in 2022.

This year Taylor was recognized by all as the rightful and unanimous best punter in the nation. He was recognized as the top punter in the Big Ten by capturing the Eddleman–Fields Punter of the Year and earning unanimous first-team All-Big Ten status. Taylor was rightfully the recipient of the Ray Guy Award, given to the best punter in the nation.

In the national All-American teams, Taylor was an easy write-in as the punter. FWAA, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, CBS (unanimous), Walter Camp, Associated Press, and Sporting News all included the Aussie specialist as their first-team All-America punter.

With all of the accolades already achieved, Taylor is just 20 yards away from breaking the all-time single-season NCAA punting yards record. The current top mark was set at 4,138 by Michigan State’s Johnny Pingel back in 1938. That was 85 years ago. The Hawkeye will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest specialists in NCAA history.

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