Five players earn academic honors

Five players earn academic honors

The UB football team dominated the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-District I Football team with five of the 20 spots on the team. The squad was selected by District I members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Senior defensive end Dan Poulsen made the District I team for the second straight season. Other UB players honored include junior offensive tackle Mike Garofalo, junior offensive guard David Pruce, sophomore linebacker Brandon Nishnick and redshirt freshman running back David Schmidli.

Poulsen, a physical therapy major, has a 3.84 grade point average, the highest of any UB male athlete. He leads the Bulls in sacks for the second straight season and has 44 tackles and a team-high 12 stops for losses on the season. He ranks seventh all-time in career sacks.

Garofalo and Pruce are part of an offensive line that has set new school records for rushing yards (2,255) and first downs by rushing (126) this season. Garofalo, a management major, is a three-year starter with a 3.41 GPA. Pruce, a political science major, has a 3.80 GPA.

Schmidli has been a major contributor to the offense as a redshirt freshman. Schmidli, a physical-therapy major with a 3.54 GPA, has 237 yards rushing on 40 carries this season (5.9 yards per carry) and a pair of touchdowns. He also has nine receptions for 63 yards.

Nishnick, a sophomore majoring in history, has a 3.36 GPA. A backup linebacker and special-teams standout, he has made 19 tackles on the year, forced a fumble and had one sack.