TOWSON, Md. – Two members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference runner-up and PSAC-Western Division co-champion Slippery Rock University football team were named Wednesday to the 2011 Capital One Academic All-America® Division II Football Team selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Senior wide receiver
Devin Goda received first-team honors, while senior offensive tackle
A.J. Hopp was a member of the second team.
To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00 and have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution.
“On behalf of everyone associated with Rock Football, I congratulate Devin and A.J. on being selected as to the Academic All-America Team,” Rock Head Coach
George Mihalik said. “We are proud of their efforts in the classroom and on the football field that earned them these honors, and we thank them for being outstanding representatives of the Green and White.”
Goda and Hopp were the first Rock football student athletes to receive Academic All-America® honors since Mike Butterworth and Clint Forsha were both named to the first team in 2007. Butterworth also earned a first-team Academic All-America® honor in 2006.
Butterworth, Forsha and Goda are the only Rock football student athletes who have earned Academic All-America® first-team honors and headline a group of 25 SRU student athletes from all sports who have earned top honors since the Academic All-America® program's inception in 1952.
Goda's selection marked the second consecutive year in which at least one Rock student athlete received a first-team Academic All-America® honor.
SRU has had at least one student athlete receive an Academic All-America® honor in each of the last 12 years and 18 of the last 19 years.
A total of 62 Rock student-athletes have earned the prestigious academic honor dating back to 1971, a figure that ranks first in the PSAC and sixth among all NCAA Division II institutions.
Click here to view a complete list of The Rock's Academic All-America® selections.
Goda earned first-team All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division honors last fall after he ranked second among PSAC receivers in catches per game (6.8) and third in yards per game (93.5).
A native of Monongahela and graduate of Elizabeth Forward High School, Goda caught 75 passes for 1,028 yards and 11 touchdowns. Those totals ranked as the third, fourth and second best, respectively, among SRU's all-time leaders. He also finished his four-year Rock career ranked second in both receptions (173) and yardage (2,259).
A first-team Academic All-District selection in both 2010 and 2011, Goda was the PSAC-West “Offensive Player of the Week” Oct. 23 after he set school records with 225 pass receiving yards and four touchdown receptions at Lock Haven.
Hopp, a native of Akron, Ohio and graduate of Archbishop Hoban High School, earned firs-team Academic All-District and second-team All-PSAC-West honors after he helped provide the foundation for a solid offensive-line effort.
The Hopp-led frontline helped enable The Rock offense to score 29 points per game, the fifth-best average in the conference, and senior quarterback
Cody Endres time to set SRU single-season passing attempts, completion and yardage records.
Goda and Hopp were among a group of nine PSAC student athletes who earned Capital One Academic All-America® Division II Football Team honors in 2011. Joining Goda on the first team were Clarion University defensive back Shawn Sopic and Mercyhurst College linebacker Ian Wild. Second-team selections included Hopp, Kutztown University wide receiver
Josh Smith, Shippensburg University running back Mike Frenette, California (Pa.) offensive lineman Chet Walc, Edinboro University defensive back Branden Williams and Mercyhurst defensive lineman Andrew Butka.
About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., had $122.2 billion in deposits and $197.5 billion in total assets outstanding as of December 31, 2010. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. Capital One, N.A. has approximately 1,000 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.
Capital One, an NCAA Corporate Champion, began its affiliation with college sports with the sponsorship of the 2001 Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl (now the Capital One Bowl) and ESPN's Capital One Bowl Week. In 2010, Capital One launched the Capital One Cup, a prestigious new program rewarding NCAA Division I athletics programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men's and women's sports. In addition, Capital One sponsors the ABC College Football Halftime Report, Capital One All-America Mascot Team, all 88 NCAA Championships including the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, and numerous other collegiate athletics programs.
Academic All-America ® program
Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America® honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
For more information about the Academic All-America® Teams program, please visit
www.cosida.com.
