Dec. 15, 2004
Pro Football Weekly 2004 All-America Football Team
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Despite playing with an injured left elbow for all but two plays of the 2004 season, Northwestern defensive tackle Luis Castillo (Garfield, N.J./Garfield) picked up first-team All-America honors today from Pro Football Weekly.
Joining Castillo on the first-team All-America defensive line were Georgia's David Pollack, Wisconsin's Erasmus James and Florida State's Travis Johnson.
The team was selected by PFW personnel analyst Nolan Nawrocki, who consulted with NFL evaluators on the honorees. The players' selection is based on talent, production and value to their team. Other All-America qualities such as leadership, resiliency, toughness, competitiveness and character were weighed heavily.
Castillo ranked fourth on the Wildcats' tackle list with 75 (first among all NU defensive linemen) and added a team-best 8.5 tackles for loss. He notched a career-best 11 tackles, which included 2.5 TFL's, in NU's win over Indiana. Castillo, who started 34 career games (the last 31 in succession), concluded his illustrious career with 251 tackles and 19.5 TFL's.
In addition to his latest honor, Castillo also was named a first-team Academic All-American earlier this month. He becomes just the fourth player in NU history to be named a first-team All-American and a first-team Academic All-American in the same season. (Andy Cvercko, Larry Onesti and Sam Valenzisi are the other NU players to accomplish the feat.)
In the Wildcats' final game at Hawaii, Castillo was forced to leave the contest with broken ribs in the first quarter.