David Ruffer Named To ESPN First-Team Academic All-America Team

Nov. 23, 2010

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame senior place kicker David Ruffer (Oakton, Va./Gonzaga H.S.) was named to the 2010 First Team ESPN Academic All-America® Football Team Tuesday. Ruffer becomes the 31st different Irish football player (37th overall selection) to be voted a first-team Academic All-American and the first since John Carlson in 2006.

Ruffer gives the Irish football program 55 academic All-American honorees in program history, which ranks second best in the nation. Notre Dame has 37 first-team selections, 16 second-team honorees, one third-team selection and one honorable mention choice.

Notre Dame ranks second all-time with 218 Academic All-Americans since the program’s inception in 1952. What’s more, 92 Irish student-athletes have earned the Academic All-America distinction during the past 11-plus years (2000-present), tops among any school in the country.

Ruffer has accumulated a 3.90 GPA while studying economics. He has excelled on the field as well. Ruffer was recently named a finalist for the 2010 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award presented by the Discover Orange Bowl. He has connected on all 15 of his field goal attempts and made 32 of 34 extra-point attempts in 2010. Ruffer has actually converted 20 consecutive field goals dating back to the Pittsburgh contest in 2009. The 20 straight field goals made is the longest streak in school history and the longest active streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but even more amazing is the fact that the streak has opened Ruffer’s collegiate kicking career.

Ruffer is the only kicker in the FBS in 2010 still perfect in field goal attempts. He is also the only kicker in the FBS still perfect for his career and leads all active kickers in field goal percentage. Ruffer also owns the school record for consecutive field goals made in a single season with 15, which ranks as the fifth-most field goals in single-season school history.

Ruffer converted a field goal in 11 straight games, each game in which he has served as the Irish starting place kicker (dating back to the Pittsburgh contest in 2009), before the streak came to an end against Tulsa. The 11 consecutive games with a field goal was the longest streak by a Notre Dame kicker since Nicholas Setta set the school record with a field goal in 16 straight games (2000-02).

Ruffer’s 50-yard field goal against Pittsburgh earlier this season, which actually broke the previous school record for consecutive field goals, was tied for the sixth-longest field goal in school history. It was the longest field goal by an Irish player since D.J. Fitzpatrick booted a 50-yarder against Syracuse on Dec. 6, 2003. Ruffer became the sixth place kicker in school history to connect on a field goal of 50 yards or longer.

Voting for the ESPN Academic All-America Team was conducted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Committee. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.

For more information about the Academic All-America Teams program, please visit the official CoSIDA web site at cosida.com, and for more on Notre Dame’s Academic All-America success, please visit the UND.com Academic All-Americans Page.

2010 ESPN Academic All-America ®
Football Team as selected by CoSIDA
University Division

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