AUSTIN — Nate Leonard was named a first-team Captial One Academic All-American, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced on Thursday. The senior center, who was a second-team selection last fall, is the 18th honoree in UTSA Athletics history. He also was tabbed to Conference USA's 15-member All-Academic Team later in the day.
Leonard, who maintains a 3.99 GPA in physical education, also was named a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete on Oct. 30.
The McKinney native is the only Roadrunner to start all 46 games in program history and he has chronicled the past two seasons with a blog on goUTSA.com after doing so in 2012 for The Huffington Post.
The 6-foot, 280-pounder was second among the squad’s offensive linemen this year with 41 knockdown blocks and he also graded out at 80 percent. Leonard was a member of the preseason Dave Rimington Trophy watch list (nation’s top center) and he also earned preseason second-team all-conference accolades from Athlon Sports..
To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a 4.00 scale, have reached sophomore athletics and academic standings at his current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 20,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.