SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State football junior Ron Smith has been named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District® Football Team, selected by CoSIDA. The award recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom.
An Oakland, Calif., native, Smith earned first-team District 8 honors, which includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as Canada. Smith is one of just three student-athletes on the District 8 team from the Mountain West.
Smith has started the last 29 games at cornerback for the Aztecs. On the season, Smith has 36 tackles (21 solo), one tackle for loss and five pass breakups in 10 games. Over his career, Smith, who has played in all 37 games the last two-plus seasons, has 155 tackles (98 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss, five interceptions, 24 pass breakups and two forced fumbles.
Last month, Smith was named a Wuerffel Trophy nominee, which goes out to FBS players that best combine exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement. A two-time Mountain West Scholar-Athlete (2016-17) and two-time MW Fall All-Academic Team member (2016-17), Smith has also won the Malik Award at SDSU (highest GPA in a semester) and been a recipient of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award, which is presented to student-athletes of color who exhibit academic excellence and community activism.
Smith, who posted a 3.76 undergrad GPA, is working on his master's in education.
First-team Academic All-District® honorees advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot. First- and second-team (if applicable) Academic All-America® honorees will be announced in early December. For more information about CoSIDA's Google Cloud Academic All-District® and Academic All-America® Teams program, visit AcademicAllAmerica.com or the Academic All-America home page on CoSIDA.com.
SDSU wraps up its stretch of three road games in four weeks this Saturday at Fresno State. The game between San Diego State (7-3, 4-2 MW) and the Bulldogs (8-2, 5-1 MW) is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.