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EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University redshirt senior defensive lineman Bryan Thomson and redshirt junior wide receiver Jon Schnaars have been named to the Capital One Academic All-America football team for the 2014 season, it was announced Wednesday.

Thomson, named to the first team, and Schnaars, who was placed on the second team, are the first set of ESU football teammates to earn Academic All-America honors in the same season.

Thomson (Keyport, N.J./Keyport), a Business Management major with minors in Economics and Communications, has a 3.41 cumulative grade-point average and earned his second straight Academic All-District honor this fall.

Schnaars (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) is a Business Management major with a 3.50 GPA.

Eight Warriors have combined for nine Academic All-America citations - linebacker Warren Brown (2nd team) in 1979, tight end Ernie Siegrist (1st team) in 1984, punter Ed Detwiler (2nd) in 1992, defensive back Matt Crispell (1st) in 2004, linebacker Matt Freed (1st) in 2009 and 2010, and wide receiver Robert Bleiler (2nd) in 2013.
 
In additional to his Academic All-America honors, Thomson was a national semifinalist for the National Football Foundation's Campbell Trophy and was an AFCA Good Works Team honoree this season.

On the field, he is a three-time All-PSAC East first team selection, ESU's first at any position since 2006. He was a D2Football.com preseason All-America second team selection and earned All-America honors from the Football Gazette (third team) as a redshirt sophomore in 2012, when he was the PSAC East Defensive Player of the Year.

He is a two-time Football Gazette All-Region pick, was named to the Daktronics All-Region first team in 2012, and was nominated for the Gene Upshaw Award and Cliff Harris Award as a junior and senior.

Thomson was third on the Warriors with 77 tackles as the nose guard in ESU's 3-3-5 defense. He had a team-high 11.0 tackles for loss, along with 6.5 sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and six blocked kicks, tying his own school record.

In his career, Thomson made 33 starts and had 218 tackles, 32.5 TFL, 21.5 sacks, six forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and a school-record 16 blocked kicks. He was a two-time PSAC East Defensive Player of the Week, earning recognition in 2013 at Kutztown (career-high 3.5 sacks) and 2014 at Shippensburg (8 tackles, 2 TFL, sack, fumble recovery, two blocked kicks in 37-33 win).
 
Schnaars led the PSAC with 14 TD receptions in the regular season and had 58 catches for 807 yards.

He had four 100-yard games this season, including a school record-tying 14 catches for 152 yards and two TD at Shippensburg. He also had seven catches for 107 yards and a TD at Edinboro, eight catches for 108 yards and three TD at Millersville, and five catches for 119 yards and a TD at Mercyhurst.

Schnaars had a TD catch in 10 of ESU's 11 games, including the final seven - the second-longest streak in school history. His 14 TD catches are tied for fourth in ESU's single-season record book, and his 24 career TD catches are tied for fifth on ESU's all-time list.

Schnaars will enter his senior season with 125 career receptions (14th at ESU) and 1,837 career receiving yards (16th).

The PSAC had 10 of the 49 selections across Division II. Joining Thomson and Schnaars are three players from Mercyhurst - tight end John Matarazzo (1st), defensive back Colin Kimball (1st) and offensive lineman Ryan Michaels (2nd); three from Gannon - quarterback Liam Nadler (2nd), offensive lineman Randy Toth (2nd) and defensive lineman Matthew Gawlik (2nd); California linebacker Spencer Lynn (1st) and Seton Hill linebacker Tyler Zimmer (1st).


About the Academic All-District and All-America program

The Academic All-District and All-America teams recognize student-athletes for athletic and academic achievement and are nominated and voted on by members of CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).

ESU is tied for second in the PSAC with 74 Academic All-District selections in the last seven years (2007-08 through 2013-14).

ESU has three Academic All-District selections in 2014-15 - Thomson, Schnaars and Shea Neal (women's soccer).

The Warriors had five Academic All-America selections in 2013-14 - Christina O'Connor (women's track & field), Nemanja Nikolic and Khriswayne Wallace (men's soccer), Brendan McKeown (wrestling) and Robert Bleiler (football).

This marks the fourth year that separate teams have been selected for Division II, Division III and College Division (NAIA/Canadian schools/two-year schools) institutions. The previous "College Division" included all DII, DIII, Canadian and junior college programs.

District 2 of Division II follows the NCAA's regional model and includes all schools from the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference), Mountain East Conference and CIAA (Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association). The Northeast-10 Conference is also included in the region in football.

ESU has had 36 student-athletes combine for 50 Academic All-America awards in school history.