Illinois State LB Tye Niekamp Named All-American, Anchors Redbirds Defense

Tye Niekamp arrived at Illinois State carrying a football bloodline and left his redshirt freshman season as the MVFC Freshman of the Year. Three seasons later, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound inside linebacker from Spokane, Washington is a three-time All-American, a three-time All-MVFC selection, and the engine behind a Redbird defense that pushed all the way to the FCS national championship game in Nashville.

The honors kept accumulating through 2025. Niekamp earned first-team recognition on the Stats Perform FCS All-America Team, was named to the 13th annual FCS ADA All-America Team as the top linebacker in the country, and claimed MVFC Defensive Player of the Year. He finished eighth in Buck Buchanan Award voting. According to HERO Sports, he led the entire FCS with 160 tackles at a rate of 9.4 per game, adding 16 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, one interception, and nine pass breakups. Illinois State's own reporting and Sports Illustrated's championship preview both cited 155 tackles for the year, placing him four behind FCS leader James Conway of Fordham at the time of those reports, with 14.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. The discrepancy across sources reflects different statistical cutoffs during the playoff run rather than a dispute over his dominance.

Head coach Brock Spack made clear that Niekamp's value extends beyond the tackle sheet. "He's the quarterback of our team on defense," Spack said. "He knows the defense. He knows the defense around him, and he can direct the Redbird defense better that way."

The progression to that level of responsibility has been steep and fast. After redshirting in 2022, Niekamp recorded 74 tackles, nine tackles for loss, and seven pass breakups as a redshirt freshman in 2023, earning FCS Freshman All-American honors and finishing fourth in the Jerry Rice Award voting. His sophomore campaign in 2024 produced 112 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, three sacks, four interceptions, and eight pass breakups, along with multiple All-American accolades and All-MVFC First Team recognition.

Niekamp's path to Normal, Illinois, runs directly through his father. Travis Niekamp, an Illinois State defensive lineman from 1994 to 1997, coached linebackers at Eastern Washington before moving through stops at Washington State, Louisiana-Monroe, and Montana. He has spent the last eight seasons as Illinois State's defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach, making him his son's direct position coach. The arrangement has produced one of the more decorated defensive players in recent FCS history.

Illinois State rode that defense to the program's second-ever FCS national championship appearance, beating Southeastern Louisiana 21-3, North Dakota State 29-28, UC Davis 42-31, and Villanova 30-14 in the playoff bracket before meeting No. 2 seed Montana State on January 5. Niekamp recorded 13 tackles and a sack in the first-round win over Southeastern Louisiana, then contributed five tackles and 1.5 sacks in the championship game itself, a 35-34 overtime loss to Montana State.

Before the title game, Niekamp kept the focus on what remained unfinished. "We've been playing so well all the way around, but I feel like there's still more room to improve, especially on the defensive side," he said.

Now entering his senior season in 2026, Niekamp carries three years of All-American credentials into what figures to be his final run in Normal.