Interior linemen on both sides of the football rarely get the respect they deserve.
While the edge rushers get most of the sacks and tackles for loss, defensive tackles often toil in the trenches with little to show for their efforts on the stat sheet.
While that’s true to an extent for Indiana’s Tyrique Tucker, he was also certainly recognized in 2025.
After compiling 40 tackles, six sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and two pass breakups, Tucker earned third-team All-America by the Associated Press and first-team All-Big Ten by the conference media and coaches panels.
Despite those accolades, Tucker isn’t as celebrated as some of the team’s biggest stars, like Fernando Mendoza, D’Angelo Ponds, and others.
But ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg appreciates Tucker’s artistry battling offensive linemen. He sees Tucker as one of the game’s “biggest playmakers” in 2026, a label rarely given to defensive tackles.
The last James Madison transfer standing on the IU roster, Rittenberg named Tucker one of his 15 top college football non-quarterback playmakers for 2026. Tucker was the only interior lineman on either side of the ball on his list.
Rittenberg found some compelling stats as it relates to Tucker’s relative ability to stand out in his interior role:
“Tied for third in sacks among primary defensive tackles and first in pass-rush sacks created (8). He had at least one-half tackle for loss in nine contests and opened Big Ten play with two sacks against Illinois in a blowout win. Among primary defensive tackles, he tied for fourth nationally in pressures last season (28) and ranked fifth in pass rushes from the defensive tackle position (347).”
Tucker learned to be a playmaker by watching his older brother Diamonte turn into an All-American linebacker under head coach Curt Cignetti at James Madison from 2017-21. It was that connection that led Cignetti to offer Tucker a spot on the JMU roster, and he has parlayed that into his own All-American college career.
“He was a rotational player my last year at JMU, and came in and made the rotation my first year [at Indiana] as a starter, and really has developed,” Cignetti told ESPN. “We give our D-linemen a lot of freedom, depending on whether it’s a down block or a back block or a pull, to do some things, and Tyrique is really dedicated to it. He’s explosive, good, low center of gravity, he has got short-area quickness and good change of direction.”
Tucker started all 16 games during Indiana’s undefeated national championship season a year ago. Alongside Mario Landino, he’s a feature of a defensive line that’s expected to be among the nation’s best in 2026.
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