June 30, 2006

LAS VEGAS - Enjoying another outstanding season in the classroom, UNLV Football turned in its second-highest cumulative grade point average in history with a 2.649 after the 2005-06 academic year.

Also, Rebel football players earned no less than 16 spots on the UNLV Dean's List in the fall and spring semesters. An impressive 29 players earned a 3.0 or above GPA in spring 2006 while 18 boasted cumulative 3.0 marks.

"We are committed to everyone on our team graduating and being successful academically," Head coach Mike Sanford said. "We hold everyone accountable for everything they do in the classroom and also reward achievement. We had an excellent first year and we plan to improve academically every semester in the future."

Announced earlier this year, at least seven Rebels earned Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors for the seventh consecutive season. In fact, academic advising for football has helped produce 61 such honorees since the school joined the MWC in 1999.

Leading the way was a local product, sophomore defensive lineman Jacob Hales. The defensive lineman was named his team's Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the program's annual awards banquet after compiling a 3.82 GPA while majoring in Spanish.

REBEL FOOTBALL ON THE UNLV DEAN'S LIST
Fall 2005:
Jacob Hales, Ryan Heise, Marquel Martin, David Olsen, Matt Pattison, JaJaRiley, Hubi Schulze Zumkley, Ryan Welter, Ryan Worthen
Spring 2006:
Corey Anderson, Chris Butler, Mike Donato, Casey Flair, Jacob Hales, Mike McKiski, Ryan Worthen