Iowa football’s Xavier Nwankpa earned the Big Ten Defense Player of the Week. His teammates knew it was bound to happen.

IOWA CITY — Iowa football’s Xavier Nwankpa was taking a nap when the news broke he’d been named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.

Having no prior knowledge of earning the weekly honor, he woke up to his cellphone filled with notifications.

“I just saw a bunch of (tags),” Nwankpa said. “I just saw it then, just like everyone else.”

After recording 10 tackles (tying a career-high), his first career forced fumble and his first interception since the 2023 season — which was returned for 28 yards — against Penn State on Saturday night, it seemed like a no-brainer for him to earn the conference’s weekly honor.

Not that it was on Nwankpa’s mind. He just wanted to have his share of impactful plays in Big Ten play.

“Obviously you want to go make plays, but you can't go try and do too much or that's when explosive play will happen,” Nwankpa said. “When the opportunity presents itself, you’ve got to be able to go out there and make the play.”

The senior defensive back is the second player this season to earn a Big Ten weekly honor, the first to earn a defensive award. Wide receiver Kaden Wetjen earned the Hawkeyes’ other two times this year, both for special teams.

“He's playing outstanding football,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Playing his best as a senior, something that helps any football team, and he's been a strong leader, great leader for us, so happy for him and certainly well-deserved on that one.”

Nwankpa was among Iowa football’s highest ranked recruits in program history, becoming the MaxPreps Iowa Player of the Year as a senior and winning a state title. He was a five-star, top 100 ranked recruit, receiving offers from more than 20 Power Four programs before landing at Iowa.

Similarly to many other members of the defense, Nwankpa had to wait for his opportunity to get those significant snaps. Nwankpa’s gone through the ups and downs of development through his four years. He’s also said during that time, he’s learned a lot about himself, too.

“Xavier went through that, like most guys do,” Ferentz said. “There's some give and take, but he has a great attitude, works hard, and you hope when you're a junior or a senior you're playing your best football, and I think that's what we've seen with him.”

He’s played every season, starting his freshman season on special teams, earning his first career start in 2022 against Kentucky in the Music City Bowl. He slid into the starting strong safety spot his sophomore year, recording his first career interception against Utah State in Week 1 and a total 42 tackles.

This season, he’s reached 37 tackles — on pace for a career-high total tackles in a season as soon as Saturday against Minnesota. Nwankpa’s consistency since becoming a starter is evident across the statistics sheet, but he’s been striving to make the game-changing plays he created against the Nittany Lions.

“Obviously, there's gonna be ups and downs, it's football,” Nwankpa said. “You're not always gonna play your best game. You're not always gonna play your worst game, but you gotta go out there and try and put the best brand of football out there.”

It just so happened that best brand of football was halfway through his senior season — but came with a price.

Nwankpa dove for the football during the forced fumble and felt some tearing. It wasn’t a muscle, but rather, his right ear. Having no clue what caused it, the defensive back saw blood on his gloves in between plays and the athletic trainers padded up the injury.

He lost count of how many stitches he got after the win.

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“Yeah, that's disgusting,” quarterback Mark Gronowski said. “It's actually really gross. He showed me a picture after the game, and it's not cool.”

Nwankpa joked it could have been from hitting too hard, but his helmet is getting adjusted to protect his ear and keep anything similar from happening to him again.

The battle scar he received for his efforts means his ear’s a little sore now, but Nwankpa played at the heights of how he was advertised in high school — and the Hawkeyes weren’t shocked it happened one bit.

“It was amazing,” cornerback TJ Hall said. “Just seeing him go out there have a game like that, man, that doesn't surprise me. Because I know what X can do ... he just went out there and showed it.”

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