TicketsCINCINNATI — Former University of Cincinnati standout cornerback Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner has been named to The Sporting News College Football All-Decade All-American Team for the 2020s, cementing his status as one of the most dominant defensive players in recent college football history.
Selected fourth overall in the 2022 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, Gardner immediately translated his collegiate dominance to the professional ranks, winning 2022 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. He went on to make history as the first cornerback since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to earn First-Team AP All-Pro honors in each of his first two seasons (2022, 2023), while also securing back-to-back Pro Bowl selections. Traded to the Indianapolis Colts during the 2025 season in a blockbuster deal involving two first-round picks, Gardner has amassed over 200 total tackles and 50 passes defensed while maintaining his status as one of the NFL's premier lockdown cornerbacks.
With the Bearcats, Gardner was a Consensus All-American, earning First-Team honors from the Associated Press, AFCA, FWAA, and The Sporting News, while also becoming the first Cincinnati player in program history to be named a two-time FWAA All-American. He was selected as the Unanimous American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year—just the second player in league history to achieve that milestone—and was named a Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist alongside teammate Coby Bryant, the award's winner. In his final season in 2021, Pro Football Focus College recorded that Gardner allowed just 13 total receptions for 117 yards.
During his landmark 2021 campaign, Gardner recorded 35 tackles, three sacks, three interceptions, and four pass breakups, highlighted by a career-high eight tackles against ECU. He picked off passes against Murray State, Notre Dame, and South Florida, and scored his third career defensive touchdown on a 60-yard scoop-and-score following a blocked field goal at ECU. Gardner served as the leader of a Bearcats defense that ranked first nationally in pass efficiency defense (100.47) and placed in the top five for passing yards allowed, interceptions, completion percentage allowed, and passing touchdowns allowed.
Gardner and his teammates enjoyed a legendary 2021 season in which the Bearcats made history as the first Group of Five team to reach the College Football Playoff, facing Alabama in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Cincinnati won the AAC Championship and secured a landmark victory over Notre Dame en route to a 13-1 record, finishing the season ranked No. 4 in the country.
Gardner and the Colts kick off the 2026 NFL regular season at home on Sunday, Sept. 13, against the Baltimore Ravens at Lucas Oil Stadium.