Two Northwestern Football Players Named to Preseason All-Big Ten Teams

Every season, esteemed college football analyst Phil Steele releases his Preseason All-Big Ten teams. This year, two Northwestern Wildcats made the cut, offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan and linebacker Mac Uihlein. Tiernan is a member of Steele's second-team while Uihlein was named to the third-team.

Northwestern Football announced the news on X earlier this morning.

Both Tiernan and Uihlein are crucial players for Northwestern heading into 2025.

Tiernan is poised to anchor the offensive line and hopefully be one of Northwestern's best players on the field every week. He has legitimate NFL aspirations and, if all goes well, will be selected in the upcoming draft.

There's even a decent chance Tiernan could play his way into being a first-round pick, so it's unsurprising he was named to one of these teams. He's only on the second-team because the Big Ten is the Big Ten.

Uihlein, on the other hand, is tasked with transitioning Northwestern's linebacker room out of the Xander Mueller-era. Last season, the 'Cats lost Bryce Gallagher, but they still had one of the former dynamic duo roaming around on defense. Now, both are gone, and Uihlein has to pick up the slack.

Northwestern's defense will suffer if it doesn't have linebackers that can get up field and make tackles. Uihlein projects to be that kind of guy, as he already posted 84 tackles as a third-year last season. Now, as the leader of the position group, he has an opportunity to take the next step and become truly dominant.

It's hard to argue that Steele snubbed any other Northwestern players heading into this season. The 'Cats are very rarely going to be able to get a skill position player onto one of these lists, and nobody else has proven quite enough thus far in their careers to be recognized. Tiernan and Uihlein were the right choices.

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