BATON ROUGE — LSU center Rudy Niswanger has been named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District football team, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced on Thursday.
The academic honor is the second in as many weeks for Niswanger, who last week was named a National Scholar-Athlete by the National Football Foundation. That honor carries an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship and also makes Niswanger one of 16 finalists for the Draddy Award, which is commonly referred to as the “Academic Heisman Trophy.”
Niswanger, a senior from Monroe, graduated last May with a 4.0 grade point average in kinesiology with an emphasis on pre-medicine. He’s already been accepted to the LSU Medical School in Shreveport.
By making the all-district team, Niswanger will now be put on the national ballot for a possible spot on the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America squad.
Niswanger, who was a first-team ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America in 2004, has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll three times in his career as well as being a two-time academic all-district selection.
Niswanger has started seven of LSU’s eight games this year and he’s among the team leaders in total plays from scrimmage, pancake blocks and knockdowns.