Jay Higgins

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa senior linebacker Jay Higgins has been named a Dick Butkus Award semifinalist as announced by the Butkus Foundation.

Higgins is one of 12 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, presented to the nation’s most outstanding linebacker. He is one of three players from the Big Ten Conference on the list along with Ohio State’s Tommy Eichenberg and Penn State’s Curtis Jacobs.

Higgins leads the Big Ten and ranks second nationally with 12.6 tackles per game. He has two 15- and seven 10-tackle games this season.

The Indianapolis native has 81 tackles in six Big Ten games, averaging 13.5 tackles per contest.

Iowa’s Jack Campbell won the Butkus Award in 2022 and was a semifinalist in 2021, while Josey Jewell was a finalist for the award in 2016 and a semifinalist in 2017.