Tanner Bleskin Caps Tremendous Career in Fitting Fashion
12/5/2013 12:46:00 PM | Football
Bobcat receiver earns CoSIDA Academic All-America honors
Tanner Bleskin spent the 2013 season breaking records, and the off-season for Montana State's senior receiver is beginning the same way.
Bleskin became the first Bobcat to earn Capital One First Team Academic All-America honors since Travis Lulay in 2005 on Thursday. He earned Second Team Academic All-America honors last year, as voted by College Sports Information Directors of America, and becomes MSU's first two-time selection since 2003.
"This is a tremendous honor, and no one is more deserving than Tanner," said MSU coach Rob Ash. "He excelled as a football player and academically while representing our program in a first-class manner. And, when you consider that he is a high-character person who maintained a near-perfect grade point average in an extremely difficult major, it's easy to see that Tanner really embodies the student-athlete ideal."
A product of Great Falls CM Russell High School, Bleskin is completing his Microbiology degree with a 3.85 cumulative grade point average. As an undergrad, he has worked in an MSU laboratory researching the human immune system.
Bleskin caught 64 passes for 969 yards and three touchdowns during his just-completed senior season. He finished seventh in the Big Sky in receiving yards per game and ninth in catches per game, and was among the top 50 players in the FCS in both categories. He finishes his career as Montana State's all-time leader in catches (194) and receiving yards (2,816).
Bobcat Academic All-Americas
2012 – Tanner Bleskin, WR, 2nd Team
2005 – Travis Lulay, QB, 1st Team
2003 – Jon Montoya, DE, 1st Team
2002 – Ryan Johnson, RB, 1st Team; Jon Montoya, DE, 1st Team
2001 – Ryan Johnson, RB, 1st Team and Division I Academic All-America of the Year
2000 – Ryan Johnson, RB, 1st Team
1996 – Devlan Geddes, DE, 1st Team; Scott Matthews, DB, 2nd Team
1989 – Derrick Isaacson, OL, 2nd Team
1988 – Anders Larssen, K, 1st Team; Bob Kimball, SS, 2nd Team
1987 – Bob Kimball, SS, 2nd Team; Marc Paffhausen, DB, 2nd Team; Anders Larssen, K, 2nd Team
1986 – Don Leake, OL, 2nd Team
1984 – Dirk Nelson, P, 1st Team; Doug Kimball, DB, 2nd Team
