SAN ANTONIO — Sophomore C Nate Leonard earned first-team Captial One Academic All-District VII honors, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced on Thursday.
Leonard is the first Roadrunner to earn the award in program history and he now is eligible for the Academic All-America ballot.
The McKinney native, who maintains a perfect 4.0 GPA in physical education, has started every game in school annals, including nine this season, and has chronicled the campaign with a blog for The Huffington Post.
A leader on and off the field, Leonard has been instrumental in the team's success this fall. He helped UTSA open its second year with five consecutive victories and the Roadrunners are averaging 30.1 points, 147.1 rushing, 230.9 passing and 378 total yards per outing.
Leonard has helped lead an offensive line that has given up just six sacks in 264 pass attempts this fall and that is tied for the fourth fewest in the FBS. In fact, UTSA did not allow a sack in its first 152 passes to open the 2012 season and boasted a streak of 172 dating back to last year’s finale before junior QB Eric Soza was brought down in the fourth quarter at Rice.
He also has accumulated 18 knockdown blocks, including a season-best six on Sept. 15 at Georgia State and again two weeks later in the team's first-ever Western Athletic Conference contest at New Mexico State.
The Capital One Academic All-District teams recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom and the squads are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States. Capital One has been the entitlement rights holder to CoSIDA’s Academic All-America teams programs since 2011. First-team honorees advance to the Capital One Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.