IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa junior defensive end Anthony Nelson has been named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District VI first team. The announcement was made Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Academic All-America honorees will be announced in early December.
Nelson will now have his name placed on the national ballot for Academic All-America honors. The district honor is the second for Nelson, who earned first-team Academic All-America honors in 2017. He is also a member of Iowa’s 2018 Leadership Group.
Nelson (6-foot-7, 271 pounds) is a graduate of Waukee (Iowa) High School. He earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2016 and 2017. Nelson is an accounting major with a 3.86 grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale). He has started all 10 games in 2018 and has 24 career starts.
Nelson has recorded 32 tackles, including 16 solo stops. He is tied for sixth in the Big Ten with 6.5 sacks and has recorded eight tackles for loss. He recovered a fumble in the end zone in Iowa’s win over Maryland for his first career touchdown, and was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for his play in Iowa’s win at Minnesota.
In the last 20 seasons, under Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, 27 Iowa football student-athletes have combined to earn academic All-District and All-America recognition on 49 occasions.
The Hawkeyes (6-4, 3-4) travel to Illinois (4-6, 2-5) on Saturday (2:40 p.m., BTN).
