2015 MVFC All-Academic Teams

ST. LOUIS - A pair of Missouri State football players have been named to the 2015 Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Academic Team, announced by the league office Wednesday. Junior linebacker Dylan Cole was one of 13 players selected for the Valley's top academic team, while senior offensive lineman Jake Lasater was an honorable mention pick in a vote of the conference's sports information directors.

Cole, who was named a first-team All-MVFC performer on Monday, picked up his second straight MVFC All-Academic team citation after garnering second-team honors a year ago. A two-time MVFC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award winner, the Rogersville, Mo., product led the Bears in total tackles in every game this fall, averaging 15.4 stops per outing during league play. Cole finished the year as the MVFC's leader in tackles per game (13.8), currently ranking third among all NCAA Division I FCS defenders. He logged nine double-digit tackle totals and averaged 6.6 solo tackles per game, which was tops in the conference and fifth overall in the FCS ranks.

Cole, a sales management major who maintains a 3.67 GPA, completed the season with six straight double-digit tackle performances and 152 total tackles-good for seventh on the Bears' single-season list. A 2014 All-MVFC Honorable Mention and 2013 MVFC All-Newcomer Team.selection, Cole was named the HERO Sports FCS Defensive Stud of the Week (Oct. 26) following his 21-tackle day against South Dakota and logged a conference season-high of 23 tackles Nov. 14 vs. No. 19 UNI.

Lasater, who started seven of MSU's eight conference games and 10 contests overall for the Bears this season, earned his first career MVFC All-Academic team nod after serving as a veteran anchor for a young MSU offensive line. The fifth-year senior is a four-time MVFC Academic Honor Roll member, a two-time MVFC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award winner and has been named to the MSU Athletic Director's Honor Roll in each of his eight semesters as a Bear entering this season. An accounting major, Lasater maintains a 3.74 grade point average.

Nominees for the MVFC's All-Academic teams 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.