Eastern Washington University center Spencer Blackburn has been recognized on the 20th Annual Academic All-Star Team as selected by the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Athletic Directors Association. The 49-member squad was announced on Friday (Jan. 6) by the FCA ADA, with 115 total nominees.
Blackburn is a 2014 graduate of Meridian High School in Bellingham, Wash., and has a 3.66 grade point average as a professional accounting major. A total of 21 awards have now been won by Eagles on the Academic All-Star team since the award began in 1998, including current Eagle head coach and Blackburn’s former offensive line coach Aaron Best.
Blackburn enters his senior season in 2018 with 22 career starts in the 24 games he’s played, and later in January will be named to the Big Sky Conference All-Academic team for the second-straight season.
He started all 11 games in 2017 and earned second team All-Big Sky honors for the second year in a row. Eastern was seventh in FCS in passing (320.5 per game) and sixth in total offense (476.7) in the 2017 season, and was also 20th in scoring (34.5) and 10th in third down conversions (46.1 percent).
He was a selected to the Hero Sports Sophomore All-America squad in 2016 after his 2015 season was wiped out with a thumb injury. Blackburn took over as Eastern’s starting center in the fourth game of the 2016 season for injured senior Jerrod Jones, and earned second team All-Big Sky Conference honors. After Blackburn’s insertion into the starting lineup beginning with the Northern Arizona game on Sept. 24, Eastern’s five starters on the offensive line for the rest of the year consisted of two redshirt freshmen and a trio of sophomores.
KPUG EDIT: Information courtesy of EWU Athletics
