Mountain West Football Champions Win Academically, TooMountain West Football Champions Win Academically, Too
Kym Fortino

Mountain West Football Champions Win Academically, Too

Colorado Springs, Colo.----- The 2020 Mountain West football champion San Jose State University won on the playing field and academically, too, during its one-of-a-kind fall semester.
 
            While distance learning was common in America, the Spartans' distance spaces were in their local on and off-campus residences, 325 miles away at Humboldt State University for 12 days, in Honolulu, and in Las Vegas, where many of them took final exams while preparing to play Boise State University for the conference championship on December 19.
 
            The necessity to multi-task and focus academically resulted in a program-record 41 San José State football student-athletes earning Academic All-Mountain West honors for the 2020 season.
 
            Student-athletes were nominated based on achieving at least a 3.00 cumulative grade-point average, at least one academic term at the Mountain West nominating institution, and contributions to the team's on-field performance.
 
            Two Spartans, senior tight end/fullback Jackson Burrill and graduate student and first-team All-Mountain West offensive tackle Jack Snyder, were named Academic All-Mountain West for the fourth consecutive season.
 
            "We're thrilled with the number of players to earn all-conference academic honors. This was an especially challenging and demanding semester with starts and stops due to COVID-19 and the California wildfires and playing as many games as we did at the end of the semester. It's a real credit to these players and I want to thank our academic support staff and our assistant coaches for their roles in our team's academic success," said San Jose State football head coach Brent Brennan whose players now have earned more than.
 
            Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year and All-America defensive lineman Cade Hall, starting linebacker Tysyn Parker, running back Brendan Manigo, linebacker Christian Webb, and defensive back Tre White earned their third Academic All-Mountain West award.
 
            Second team All-Mountain West defensive back Tre Jenkins, and honorable mention honorees all-conference tight end Derrick Deese, Jr., and placekicker Matt Mercurio are three Spartans to earn all-conference honors and their second Academic All-Mountain West recognition.
 
            Long snapper Andrew Gonneville, defensive backs Jalend Dinwiddie and Andrew Jenkins, wide receiver Isaiah Hamilton, linebacker Alii Matau, offensive lineman Trevor Robbins and  kicker Chris Wood also now are two-time Academic All-Mountain West award winners.
 
            Twenty-four Spartans from the 2020 Mountain West championship team are first-time honorees.
 
            Of the Spartans on the 2020 Academic All-Mountain West list, six of the team's 11 all-conference players also earned this conference academic honor. San Jose State also had the only pair of twin brothers, Tre and Andrew Jenkins, named Academic All-Mountain West.
 
            More than 590 football student-athletes from the conference's 12 football-playing schools were honored.
 
2020 Academic All-Mountain West (San Jose State players only)

Name                     Pos. Class Academic Major
Lamar Barrett OL Junior Communication Studies
Travis Benham P Junior Behavioral Science
****Jackson Burrill TE/FB Senior Hospitality Management
Jackson Canaan TE Freshman Communication Studies
Andre Crump, Jr. WR Sophomore Business Management
**Derrick Deese, Jr. TE Senior  Communication Studies
Matt Der Torossian QB Freshman Business Administration - Entrepreneurship
**Jalend Dinwiddie    DB Junior Computer Science
Elijah Fischer P Freshman Kinesiology
Josh Gomez DL Freshman Justice Studies
**Andrew Gonneville LS Sophomore Kinesiology
***Cade Hall DL  Junior Communication Studies
**Isaiah Hamilton  WR Sophomore Communication Studies
**Tre Jenkins DB Sophomore Justice Studies
**Andrew Jenkins DB Sophomore Political Science
Rahyme Johnson LB Junior African American Studies
Jay Kakiva DL Junior  Journalism
Chance La Chapelle WR Sophomore Communication Studies
Dion Leonard LB Junior  Communication Studies
Anthony Madrigal LB Freshman Has not declared a major
***Brendan Manigo RB Junior Engineering
**Alii Matau LB Junior Child & Adolescent Development
**Matt Mercurio PK Sophomore Humanities
Sam Olson TE Freshman Environmental Science
Tyler Ostrom OL Sophomore Business Finance
***Tysyn Parker LB Senior Justice Studies
Kenyon Reed  DB Freshman Communication Studies
**Trevor Robbins OL Senior Communication Studies
Davis Salom LS Freshman Has not declared a major
Justin Scrempos OL Freshman Communication Studies
Jake Simmons QB Sophomore Communication Studies
Jamar Simpson WR Freshman Business Administration - Finance
****Jack Snyder OL  Graduate Urban Planning
Nick Starkel  QB Graduate Justice Studies
Beaux Tagaloa DL Freshman Communication Studies
***Christian Webb LB  Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies
John Weiss OL Sophomore Communication Studies
Malik Welch CB Junior Communication Studies
***Tre White DB Junior Business Administration
**Chris Wood PK Junior Business Administration
Natano Woods QB Freshman Communication Studies
* - number of Academic All-Mountain West honors earned