Joe Dineen Jr.

Classroom

Joe Dineen Jr. earned his bachelor’s degree in management and leadership with an entrepreneurship concentration in May of 2018. Dineen is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 Second Team honoree and an Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team selection, who has earned Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and KU Athletics Director’s Honor Roll four times during his KU career.

Character

Dineen is one of just three players in Kansas’ 128 years of football to be voted a team captain three times. He has been selected to represent the Jayhawks at Big 12 Media Days in each of those same three seasons.

Community

Dineen has been very active in numerous community service initiatives in the Lawrence community, including an elementary school reading program, children’s football clinics, Special Olympics football clinics and feeding the homeless with JustFood. He really found his passion raising funds and awareness for childhood cancer research. There was a child with cancer who was near and dear to the program, and Dineen got involved organizing two visits to the hospital for the football players and organizing a group of players to shave their heads in Cole Hayden’s honor. Additionally, he took part in decorating Cole’s house for Christmas and organized a group of football players to help with a 5K run in Cole’s honor. Dineen then organized a “Cole’s Christmas in July” event at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, where he and his teammates delivered gifts to all of the children in the cancer wing of the hospital in honor of Cole. It was a huge success and is an event both the hospital and Kansas football would like to keep as a tradition.

Competition

Dineen is off to a fantastic start in 2018. As of nomination time, he led the FBS in both total tackles (15.0 per game) and solo tackles (10.0 per game). He also was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week (Sept. 10) and the Lott IMPACT Trophy Player of the Week (Sept. 11). He was named preseason All-Big 12 First Team by Athlon Sports and the Big 12 media, along with being on the watch list for the AFCA Good Works Team, Wuerffel Trophy and the Bednarik Award.

Dineen led the FBS in solo tackles and ranked third in both TFLs and total tackles in 2017 on his way to earning second-team All-America honors by Sports Illustrated. Dineen set KU’s single-season TFL record in 2017 with 25.0 tackles-for-loss. He picked up numerous All-Big 12 honors (including second-team AP and coaches honors) and was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week one time in 2017.