Having seen a school record 10 Nittany Lions earn first team All-Big Ten honors on Monday, Penn State has landed a program record five players on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America team, with four earning first team honors.
Senior tackle Gerald Cadogan (Portsmouth, Ohio), junior linebacker Josh Hull (Millheim), junior kick snapper Andrew Pitz (Bettendorf, Iowa) and senior safety Mark Rubin (Amherst, N.Y.) earned first team accolades. Sophomore guard Stefen Wisniewski (Bridgeville) was a second team choice. Cadogan is a two-time first team honoree.
Penn State's four first team selections and five overall selections led the nation. Brigham Young, Dayton and North Dakota State were the only other schools with more than two honorees. Penn State is the first school to have five Academic All-America football players since Nebraska in 1997.
The Nittany Lions were the only Big Ten Conference team with more than one Academic All-American. The five Academic All-America selections give Penn State 43 all-time, with 41 under Coach Joe Paterno. Twenty-seven Nittany Lions have earned first team Academic All-America honors a total of 31 times under Paterno. The Nittany Lions' total of 43 Academic All-America football players ranks third among all Division I-A institutions.
