KANSAS CITY, MO. – Awards continue to roll in for University of Sioux Falls Football senior linebacker Dennis Gardeck, who was today named to the first team defense on the D2Football.com All American Team.
 
Gardeck, who was a finalist for the Cliff Harris Award and a nominee for the Harlon Hill Trophy, earned his fourth All-American honor. Gardeck was earlier selected to the DII Associated Press and DII Conference Commissioner's Association (D2 CCA) All-American Football Team First Team Defense on Dec. 13 and the second team defense on the American Football Coaches Association Dll-American team on Dec. 5.  
 
The D2Football.com All-America team was selected by input from the D2Football.com staff, sports information directors, coaches, and scouts from across the country. It is the fourth straight year USF has had a player(s) named to the D2Football.com Team. Eight-timr All-American Max Mickey, six-time All-American Antonio Green and Michael Mehling were honored in 2016 while 16-time All-American Solomon St. Pierre was recognized in 2014 and 2015. Gardeck is one of three NSIC players named to the first team defense.
 
"Dennis (Gardeck) had an outstanding season, who with his teammates led us to the NCAA DII playoffs in 2017," said USF first-year head football coach Jon Anderson. "He was part of a team that ranked among the top three in scoring defense, rushing defense and total defense. He excelled on the field but also was an outstanding student, who was one of the leaders on the team. Best of all, he is a fantastic person," added Anderson.

Gardeck had a special senior season on one of the top defenses in NCAA DII in 2017. He helped USF, ranked No. 14 in D2Football's final regular season poll, to its third straight berth in the NCAA DII playoffs.
 
A graduate transfer from West Virginia State where he was a three-time All-Mountain East performer, Gardeck had an instant impact on a USF defense that ranked second in total defense by allowing a program-DII best 244.3 yards per game. With Gardeck's contributions, the Cougars ranked third nationally in rushing defense at 67.8 yards per game. 

USF, which advanced to the DII playoffs for the third straight year, finished second in scoring defense at 12.5 points per game, allowing just 123 total points, a program DII-best at USF. The defense allowed opponents to rush over 200 yards once and held nine opponents to under 100 yards. With Gardeck's 14 sacks, which ranked second nationally, USF had the seventh most sacks nationally with 40 and ranked eighth in first downs allowed with 158.

Gardeck, who is in the Master of Business Administration program at USF, earned his fourth all-conference selection (three-time Mountain East honoree) and was named the NSIC Defensive Newcomer of the Year in 2017. He was named first-team All-NSIC, was fifth in NCAA DII with 1.17 sacks per game. Gardeck, who had a sack in the playoff game, had 13 solo sacks also second nationally. Including the 1.5 TFLs in the 24-20 playoff loss to No. 5 Midwestern State, he averaged 1.8 tackles for loss per game, which ranked 13th nationally. Overall, his 21.0 tackles for losses of 97 yards was the fifth most in NCAA DII.
 
In 2017, the senior linebacker recorded a team-best 75 tackles, including two double digit tackle games and nine in the playoff loss.  Gardeck led the NSIC in sacks and TFLs while also recovering a fumble, forced two fumbles and recorded a safety to clinch the 21-14 "Key to the City" game over city rival Augustana at Bob Young Field.   
 
In his first game at USF, he put together a memorable performance, registering a program-DII best five sacks in a 26-7 win over Minnesota-Duluth on the road on August 31. The five-sack performance by Gardeck against UMD was the single-best individual sack performance in DII this year.   Six times he had seven tackles or more, while recording a tackle for loss in 10 of USF's 12 games. He had two or more TFLs six times. Gardeck had a sack in eight games with two or more sacks four times.
 
Gardeck finished his career with 345 career tackles, 57.5 tackles for loss, 32 sacks, nine forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception.