AUSTIN, Texas – South Dakota football players Jack Cochrane and Dalton Godfrey have been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America second team in voting by the nation's sports information directors.
 
Cochrane, a senior linebacker and Godfrey, a junior long snapper, become just the 10th and 11th Coyote football players to earn Academic All-America honors and the first since Chris Ganious earned the second of his two honors in 2011. Across all sports, South Dakota's had 53 Academic All-Americans who have combined to earn 68 Academic All-America honors.
 
Cochrane, who holds a 4.00 GPA in Criminal Justice and Business, and Godfrey, a 4.00 student in Business Administration, are two of five from the Missouri Valley Football Conference selected to one of the two teams that totaled 53 players.
 
Cochrane (Mount Vernon, Iowa) was named a HERO Sports All-American on Tuesday, the program's first all-American linebacker since 2013. He is a three-time first team selection of the Valley's all-Academic Team. Cochrane led South Dakota with 103 tackles and his 327 career tackles are sixth-most in program history. He was the only Valley player with four interceptions during conference play. He had 2.0 sacks, 10.0 tackles for loss and broke up six passes.
 
Godfrey (Cedar Falls, Iowa) has served as long snapper for each of the last four seasons. In addition to being a two-time academic all-MVFC pick, he is a two-time all-Valley honoree. Godfrey has been the snapper for the best punter in program history in Brady Schutt, and helped Mason Lorber to 10 consecutive made field goals during the season. He helped the Coyotes rank 10th nationally in net punting after leading the nation in that category last spring.
 
The 2021-22 Academic All-America® Division I Football Team features 14 members with a 4.00 GPA and 22 members with at least a 3.90 GPA as either undergraduate or graduate student-athletes. The 25-member first team have an average GPA of 3.72.