2015 Academic All-America Division I Football Team

AUSTIN, Texas--Senior linebacker Don Cherry (Trumbull, Conn.) has earned another top academic honor, as he was named a Capital One Second Team Academic All-American for the second straight year. The 2015 Academic All-America Division I football team was selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and was revealed in an announcement on Thursday afternoon. Cherry is one of 10 student-athletes out of the 49 on the Academic All-America team who are repeat selections from last season.

The ballot for the Academic All-America team consisted of student-athletes who were named to the various Capital One Academic All-District squads earlier this season. In order to be eligible for the all-district and All-America teams, a student-athlete must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 or higher in addition to being a significant contributor to their team. Cherry is one of 12 football student-athletes all-time from Villanova to be named an Academic All-American, and just the second to earn the honor two times.

Cherry is a Finance major in the Villanova School of Business and maintains a 3.36 cumulative grade-point average. In addition to his academic honors on the national level, he was also selected last year as the 2015 CAA Football Student-Athlete of the Year for his accomplishments both on the playing field and in the classroom. Cherry is a two-time selection to the CAA Football All-Academic Team and was also named to the 2014 Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team.

In addition to his academic accolades, Cherry was also named to this year's All-CAA Football first team. He is now a three-time all-conference honoree overall and a two-time first team selection. Cherry headlined an impressive group pf linebackers for the Wildcats this season. He led the team with 12.5 tackles for loss, including three sacks, and was second on the team with 88 total tackles. Cherry also had two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, two quarterback hurries and one pass break-up. He finished the regular season tied for fourth in CAA Football in tackles for loss, as well as ninth in tackles.

Cherry made a season-high 10 total stops (four solo, six assisted) in a September 19 win over Delaware and finished his stellar collegiate career with 12 games where he posted double figures in tackles. He ended his Villanova career with 331 tackles (185 solo, 146 assisted), 46.5 tackles for loss, 14.0 sacks, seven forced fumbles, seven pass breakups, two fumble recoveries and one interception. Cherry is one of only six linebackers during the Andy Talley era to be a three-time all-conference selection. In the final game of his collegiate career, Cherry also contributed to the team's offense. He made three goal-line carries for a total of two yards and a rushing touchdown in the Wildcats season finale at James Madison.

Villanova was led by its defense in 2015 and finished the regular season ranked second in CAA Football in both total defense (309.1 yards per game) and pass defense (171.4 yards per contest) while also ranking third in scoring defense (18.4 points per game). The defense was responsible for giving up just 19 total touchdowns for the year.

Since the 1972-73 academic year, Villanova has had 51 student-athletes earn Academic All-America recognition a total of 67 times. The only previous Wildcats football player to be a two-time Academic All-American is David Graziano, who garnered recognition in 1975 and 1976. The other Villanova football players to be Academic All-Americans are Ron Sency (1987), Rich Spugnardi (1987), Bob Brady (1988), Peter Lombardi (1988), Scott Rushton (1988), Kevin Martchek (1990), Tim Matas (1992), Gregg Ziegler (1994), Deon Jackson (1996) and Raymond Ventrone (2003).