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 |