When Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti stood at the podium in Las Vegas just over a month before the season opener in August, he emphasized his team had a lot of nice “pieces.”
He molded the Hoosiers’ pieces into a team during fall camp, leading the Cream and Crimson to a 12-0 regular season and a Big Ten Championship. In turn, six Hoosiers were named to The Associated Press All-America teams on Monday.
Redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, earned a spot on the first team offense. He threw for 2,980 yards and a nation-high 33 passing touchdowns.
Mendoza previously won a multitude of awards, including the Maxwell Award, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year.
Redshirt junior offensive lineman Carter Smith was named to the second team offense, as he solidified himself as the premier left tackle in the Big Ten this season. He didn’t allow a defender to sack Mendoza this season, and he allowed just five pressures.
Sixth-year senior safety Louis Moore and junior defensive back D’Angelo Ponds each earned a spot on the second team defense. Moore has six interceptions this season, which is tied for second nationally, while Ponds has a 90.1 Pro Football Focus grade — fifth-best nationally.
Redshirt junior defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker and senior linebacker Aiden Fisher were both named to the third team defense. Tucker made 33 total tackles and 11.5 tackles for loss, while Fisher notched 77 total tackles and seven tackles for loss.
The lone Hoosier to be named to an AP All America team last season — sixth-year senior defensive lineman Mikail Kamara — didn’t earn a spot on any of the three teams this season. Still, he led the Big Ten with 46 quarterback pressures in the regular season.
No. 1 Indiana awaits either the No. 8 University of Oklahoma or the No. 9 University of Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, California.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
