Eight Bulldogs Earn Academic All-PFL Honors

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- Eight Butler football players have been named to the 19th annual Academic All-Pioneer Football League Team, announced by the PFL office on Friday, Dec. 2.  The Bulldogs had three players earn first team Academic All-PFL recognition and five players named to the second team.

Selected first Academic All-PFL from Butler were senior quarterback Andrew Huck (right), senior placekicker David Lang and senior punter Michael Wilson.  All three were chosen first team for the second consecutive year.

Huck, a biology major with a 3.66 grade point average, closed out his collegiate career as Butler’s second all-time leading passer with 6,560 passing yards.  He threw for 2,241 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2011, despite missing two games with injury.  Lang, an exercise science major with a 3.59 grade point average, finished his career with a Butler record 35 field goals.  He led the Bulldogs in scoring this past season with 72 points.  Wilson, who boasts a 3.96 grade point average in economics, averaged 37.1 yards on 46 punts in 2011.

Butler’s second team Academic All-PFL picks were offensive linemen Pete Mattingly and Matt Storey, defensive lineman Grant Hunter, linebacker Jordan Ridley and defensive back Jayme Szafranski.  Hunter was a first team Academic All-PFL pick in 2009 and a second team pick in 2010, while Ridley earned second team honors last season.

Mattingly, a senior secondary education major with a 3.74 grade point average, started 40 consecutive games for the Bulldogs, while Storey, a junior mechanical engineering major with a 3.64 grade point average, started Butler’s final 10 games this season.  Hunter, who boasts a 3.43 grade point average in criminology, led the Bulldogs in quarterback sacks (10) and tackles for loss (15.5), and he finished his collegiate career with 35.5 sacks.

Ridley, a junior science technology major with a 3.31 grade point average, led the PFL and ranked in the “Top 10” nationally in tackles with 140.  He had 10 or more tackles in eight of Butler’s 11 games.  Szafranski, a sophomore business major with a 3.87 grade point average, finished third on the team in tackles in 2011 with 66.

A total of 51 student-athletes were honored on the 2010 Academic All-PFL team.

Pioneer Football League athletic directors established the Academic All-PFL squad in 1993 as a way to recognize the league’s outstanding student-athletes.  To be nominated, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.00 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his career.  No athlete is eligible until he has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his institution.