Illinois Football: Jer’Zhan Newton earns multiple Big Ten awards

Jer’Zhan Newton can add more hardware to his illustrious Illinois football career.

Newton finished up his Illini career this past Saturday and is now on to the NFL process of developing and working on getting drafted as high as he can possibly go.

While he focuses on improving for the NFL, Newton continues to rack up accolades from his great Illinois career. On Tuesday afternoon, the Big Ten released the 2023 season awards.

All of the individual awards were handed out; Coach of the Year by both media and coaches went to David Braun of Northwestern, Defensive Back of the Year went to Cooper DeJean of Iowa, and so on and so forth.

Newton took two awards home this season. He was crowned the Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year in the Big Ten. This is an impressive feat considering the talent that comes out of this defense-heavy conference.

To go along with the Defensive Lineman of the Year honor, Newton also took home the big prize. He was named the Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten.

More accolades are to come for Illinois football defensive lineman Jer’Zhan Newton

In addition to winning the best defensive player and the best defensive lineman awards in the Big Ten, Newton also took home All-Big Ten first team honors by both the coaches and media. This is the second year in a row that he has accomplished this feat.

Newton isn’t done earning honors either. While he is now a back-to-back member of the All-Big Ten first team, Newton is probably going to add All-American first team to the list too. He was a second-team All-American by nearly every outlet in 2022, so I expect Newton to be a unanimous first-teamer in 2023.

While Newton’s career at Illinois might be finished, the hardware he has earned will keep rolling in. This kid was one of the best players I have ever seen in Champaign, and he is getting his flowers.