Illinois State junior Tye Niekamp earned multiple All-America honors last season after posting a career high in tackles. (Photo by Barry Bottino, PrairieStatePigskin.com)
By Barry Bottino
The question was simple: How exactly has Tye Niekamp elevated his game to the highest level of FCS linebackers in the country?
“The head coach is a linebacker coach,” joked Illinois State’s Brock Spack.
Sure, looking around the ISU program, “we’ve got a lot of linebacker coaches,” Spack said, a first-team All-Big Ten linebacker at Purdue in the 1980s who later coached the position at his alma mater.
Niekamp’s father, Travis, is the Redbirds’ defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach.
Defensive assistant head coach Kye Stewart was an All-American at the position in 2007 for ISU and currently coaches outside linebackers.
In a program that has produced eight All-American linebackers since 1986, Niekamp is determined to remain in that elite class. He was chosen as an Associated Press honorable mention All-American last season, which was voted on by national media members, including Prairie State Pigskin.
He also earned second-team national honors from the American Football Coaches Association and PhilSteele.com.
“It’s awesome to get the awards, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to go back out there and do the same thing … and try to prove people right,” he said.
While helping the Redbirds return to the FCS playoffs in 2024 for the first time in five years, Niekamp led the team with 119 tackles and four interceptions from his middle linebacker spot, along with eight pass breakups, 11 tackles for loss and three sacks.
Over the past month during spring practices, which concludes at 1 p.m. Saturday in Normal with the annual team scrimmage, Niekamp has enjoyed being healthy.
He’s fully recovered from thumb surgery late last season, which led to him wearing a cast in games. Also gone is the nagging injury which began last August when he suffered a pulled hamstring less than two weeks before the season opener at Iowa.
“I was pretty beat up,” Niekamp said. “It’s probably the most beat up I’ve been during a season of football.”
Despite the injuries, he played in 15 games and produced a career high in tackles, tackles for loss and interceptions.
His 119 tackles also ranked 14th-most in the country a year ago, and he finished third in voting for the Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
“You have to be durable, No. 1. He’s a very tough kid,” Spack said. “Whatever he lacks in ability – whether it’s speed or quickness or whatever – he makes up for because of his length.”
Niekamp’s instincts also stand above many at the position.
“From a mental standpoint, he’s always a step ahead,” Spack said. “He anticipates well and he’s smart. He’s a hard worker and he knows how to prepare. Event at a young age, he was very good about that.”
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
Find us on social media!
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/PSPigskin
Facebook: Prairie State Pigskin
Instagram: Prairiestatepigskin
Blue Sky: PSPigskin
Prairie State Pigskin 
Leave a comment