Dec. 3, 2014
Complete MVFC All-Academic Team Release
ST. LOUIS - Three Bears football players have been named to the 2014 Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Academic Team, announced by the league office Wednesday. Senior safety Caleb Schaffitzel was one of 12 Valley players named to the league's top academic squad, while fellow MSU defenders Andrew Beisel and Dylan Cole were both tabbed as second-team picks.
A 2014 Buck Buchanan Award finalist and NFF National Scholar-Athlete Award-winner, Schaffitzel is a two-time Academic All-America (first team in 2013; second team in 2012) and a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. The Fair Grove, Mo., native has maintained a 3.93 grade-point average as a wildlife and conservation management major, earning the MVFC President's Council Award in 2013 and the MVFC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award three times during his MSU career.
Schaffitzel logged a team-high 96 tackles to rank sixth in the Valley during the regular season, including 42 solo stops. He also ranked sixth in the MVFC in passes defended (12), starting all 12 games this fall and 41 in a row to end his MSU career. A team co-captain and 2013 consensus All-America choice, Schaffitzel finished his career with 385 stops and 10 interceptions, both of which rank among MSU's all-time leaders. Schaffitzel, a first-team All-MVFC pick in each of the previous two seasons as well, finished his senior campaign with four double-digit tackle totals this season, including three in Valley play.
Like Schaffitzel, Beisel starred both on the field and in the classroom throughout his Missouri State career, racking up 43 starts as a Bear while picking up Valley All-Academic Team recognition for the third time as a senior. The Fenton, Mo., native earned honorable mention all-academic honors in 2012 and 2013, as well as the Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award on two separate occasions. A logistics and supply chain management major who maintains a 3.59 GPA, Beisel has been tabbed for the MVFC Academic Honor Roll all four years at MSU.
A Bears co-captain in 2014, Beisel ranked third on the club with 87 total tackles, including 58 in league games. He logged 6.0 tackles for loss, a pair of interceptions and four passes defended while ranking among the top 15 Valley defenders in tackles per game (7.3) for the second year in a row. A 2013 Honorable Mention All-MVFC and 2011 MVFC All-Newcomer Team pick, Beisel concluded his MSU career with 341 total tackles.
Cole, an honorable mention All-MVFC selection this fall, was an MVFC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award recipient, as well as an MVFC All-Newcomer Team pick as a freshman in 2013. A Rogersville, Mo., product, Cole is a two-time MVFC Honor Roll choice and was named to the Missouri State University Athletic Director's Honor Roll each of his first four semesters on campus while maintaining a 3.62 GPA as a sales management major.
On the field, Cole recorded eight or more tackles six times this season and ranked second on the club with 92 stops for the year. He finished 11th in the league in total tackles (7.7), while posting 1.2 TFLs per game, which ranked fifth in the Valley during the regular season and 56th nationally. He recorded team-highs of 54 solo stops and 14.5 TFLs with a pair of interceptions and eight total passes defended for the year and was selected as MSU's player of the week by the media a team-leading three times this season.
Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (4.0 scale). Student-athletes must have reached sophomore academic and athletic standing at their institutions (freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution. League sports information directors voted on the team by designating 11 players for first-team honors and 11 players for second-team honors.
Six student-athletes are repeat first-team selections from last year, including Schaffitzel, Corey Boemer (Southern Illinois), Jake Farley (UNI), Jason Schneider (South Dakota State), Tyler Williamson (Southern Illinois) and Zach Zenner (South Dakota State). Schaffitzel and Zenner are the only two, however, to earn first-team All-MVFC Academic recognition in three consecutive seasons. Only 20 players in the league's 30-year history have earned first-team all-academic league honors three times.
