Leonhard Notches Academic Honor
November 14, 2003 | Football
Jim Leonhard, a junior defensive back with the Wisconsin football team, has been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America's (CoSIDA) District V All-Academic team for the second consecutive season.
Leonhard, a kinesiology major from Tony, Wis., now advances to the national ballot for consideration on the CoSIDA Academic All-America team. CoSIDA 's District V consists of student-athletes competing in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.
Leonhard, an Academic All-Big Ten selection in 2002 and a certain qualifier for this season as well, is a standout on the field, too. He leads the Big Ten with five interceptions and leads the conference in punt return average (15.7 yards per game, which is also fourth nationally). Leonhard ranks fourth all-time at Wisconsin with 16 career interceptions and is second all-time at the UW with 826 career punt return yards.
A two-time Big Ten Player of the Week this season (once on defense and once on special teams), Leonhard needs 43 punt return yards to break his own single-season punt return yardage mark that he set last season. He has returned two punts for TDs this season and three for his career.
Leonhard and the Badgers host Michigan State on Saturday, with kickoff set for 11:02 a.m. CST. ESPN2 (Pam Ward and Chris Spielman) will televise the game live.
