Dec. 6, 2007
IOWA CITY — Eighteen University of Iowa football players have been named to the 2007 fall academic all-Big Ten team. To be eligible, student-athletes must be a letterwinner, in at least their second academic year at the institution and have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or above (on a 4.0 scale).
Five of the eight Hawkeye student-athletes honored in 2006 made a return trip to the all-academic team. They are seniors Mike Humpal (New Hampton, Iowa), Mike Klinkenborg (Rock Rapids, Iowa), Daniel Olszta (New Lenox, Ill.) and Adam Shada (Omaha, Neb.) and junior Matt Kroul (Mount Vernon, Iowa).
The first-time UI all-academic selections are Rob Bruggeman (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), A.J. Edds (Greenwood, Ind.), Bryon Gattas (Mount Prospect, Ill.), Brett Greenwood (Bettendorf, Iowa), Bryan Mattison (Mishawaka, Ind.), Gavin McGrath (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Brett Morse (Willowbrook, Ill.), Jayme Murphy (Dubuque, Iowa), Daniel Murray (Iowa City, Iowa), Anton Narinskiy (Chagrin Falls, Ohio), Michael Sabers (Iowa City, Iowa), Jeff Tarpinian (Omaha, Neb.) and Julian Vandervelde (Davenport, Iowa).
On the national level, the Big Ten led all conferences with eight student-athletes named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America football teams. The Big 12 ranked second with four first-team selections.
Iowa was the only Big Ten institution with two first-teamers — Klinkenborg and Shada. It was the second consecutive first-team accolade for both Hawkeyes. To be eligible for Academic All-America, the student-athlete must be in his second year of eligibility, be a first-team or key performer and have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or above.
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