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Illinois Football: Defensive MVP for the 2016 Season
There were a few players for the Illinois football team that I could give the Defensive MVP to this season.
I think that most people would say that Carroll Phillips and Dawuane Smoot would be two of the top candidates for this award.
Yes, they are both up there. Phillips led the Illini with 9 sacks on the season and he also had 58 tackles, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery.
Smoot had a good campaign with 5 sacks as well. He also had 56 tackles, 2 forced fumbles and 1 pass deflection on the season.
But, I am not going to give this honor to either of those players. The player that deserves the Defensive MVP the most is linebacker Hardy Nickerson.
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Nickerson played three years at California where he was a dominant linebacker. He has 111 tackles his final season with Bears.
At the end of that third season, Nickerson had a chance to be a graduate transfer and decided to follow his dad to Illinois.
If the Illini received half the player Nickerson was a California then I would have been happy. Illinois fans got more than that, though.
Nickerson was a superstar the minute he set foot in Memorial Stadium. He earned the starting job day one and never relinquished it.
By the end of the season, Nickerson led the team in total tackles with 107, which was five more than Tre Watson.
Nickerson was also No. 5 on the team in tackles for loss with 5.5 this season. That is impressive because he isn’t a player that plays on the line of scrimmage, so tackles for loss are extremely difficult for him.
Nickerson was also No. 5 on the team in sacks with two and he led the team in interceptions with two.
There is no question in my mind that Nickerson was the Defensive MVP for the Illini this season. He was top 5 in four statistical categories and led the team in tackles and interceptions.
Illinois fans only had one year to watch Nickerson but it was worth the transfer. He was a great linebacker for the program and will be dearly missed.
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