Four Penn State players named Academic All-District
Guard John Urschel, defensive ends Pete Massaro and Brad Bars and linebacker Ben Kline have been selected to the Academic All-District team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Four Penn State players named Academic All-District
Joe Juliano
Penn State has had four players -- guard John Urschel, defensive ends Pete Massaro and Brad Bars and linebacker Ben Kline -- selected to the Capital One Academic All-District football team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
All four players are eligible for consideration to the Academic All-America team. Massaro, a senior who starred at Marple Newtown High School in Delaware County, made the 2010 Academic All-America team.
Urschel, a junior in eligibility, graduated last May with a 4.0 grade-point average in math and is working toward a master's degree. Massaro graduated last December with a 3.85 GPA in finance and is on schedule to earn an economics degree next month.
Bars, a junior, carries a 3.84 GPA in finance while Kline, a sophomore, has a 3.92 GPA in the Smeal College of Business.
With four honorees, Penn State matched Duke, Nebraska and Northern Illinois for the most among all FBS schools. The Nittany Lions have had one first-team Academic All-American in seven of the last eight seasons.
--Joe Juliano
This season is Joe's fourth season on the paper's Penn State beat. He previously covered the Nittany Lions for United Press International from 1976 to 1984.
Emily Kaplan is the Inquirer’s fall intern covering the Nittany Lions. She is a senior at Penn State and has covered a variety of sports for the university’s student-run paper, The Daily Collegian. Over the last two years, she has reported for The Associated Press from State College.
A Montclair, N.J. native, she has also interned at MLB Network, NHL.com and covered the 2012 Olympics in London. Follow her on Twitter here @EKaplan24.
