Joe Dineen Jr., named Sports Illustrated Second Team All-America for second-straight season
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Sports Illustrated announced its 2018 All-America football teams with Kansas senior linebacker Joe Dineen Jr., being named to the Second-Team Defense. Dineen earned the honor for the second-consecutive season, becoming the first Jayhawk in the history of Kansas football to do so.
A Lawrence, Kansas, native, Dineen closes out his Jayhawk career leading the Big 12 Conference in tackles for the second-consecutive year—just the second player in conference history to do so joining Texas Tech’s Lawrence Flugence (2001, 2002, 2003). Dineen turned in a career-best 147 tackles, which ranks sixth on KU’s single-season chart. His 12.3 stops per game in 2018 also ranks fourth in the FBS.
For the second-straight season, Dineen led the FBS and the Big 12 Conference in solo tackles with 108 during his senior campaign. Dineen collected 11 tackles-for-loss in 2018, giving him a KU-record 45.5 in his career, making him both the single-season TFL record-holder (25.0 in 2017) and career record-holder. Additionally, Dineen’s 391 career-tackles rank fourth in Kansas history.
Dineen was honored by the league coaches as a first-team member for the first time in his career after earning All-Big 12 Second Team honors in 2017. He was tabbed Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week twice during his senior season. Dineen is currently a Senior CLASS Award finalist and a Jason Witten Man of the Year semifinalist. He was a Lott IMPACT Trophy Semifinalist after picking up its weekly award one time this season and being a weekly award nominee three other weeks. He was named Midseason First Team All-America by Sports Illustrated, an Academic All-Big 12 First Team honoree and a finalist for the Pop Warner Little Scholars Collegiate Player of the Year.
FOLLOW
@KUFootball
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
