Eck, Johnson Earn CSC Academic All-America Honors

Courtesy of New Mexico Athletics

AUSTIN, Texas — Jaxton Eck, the Mountain West Co-Defensive Player of the Year, added to his collection of awards with a big one, as he and teammate Keagan Johnson were named Academic All-Americans by the Collegiate Sports Communicators.

Eck was a First Team Academic All-America selection, and Keagan Johnson was a Second Team Academic All-America selection. Only Miami, which lost the CFP National Championship game, had more players selected than UNM. New Mexico’s two players on the team were the most by any Mountain West team, as only Hawai’i had a player selected from a Mountain West institution.

The honors are UNM’s first since Garrett Adcock was named First Team Academic All-America in 2016. The only other time the Lobos had two players so honored in the same season was in 2007, when Cody Kase was named to the first team and Vince Natali to the second team. Eck is the first defensive player to earn Academic All-America for UNM since 2008, when Zach Arnett was named First Team Academic All-American.

Eck was the Mountain West Co-Defensive Player of the Year after recording 129 tackles in 13 games, finishing tied for 10^th nationally in total tackles and 10^th overall in tackles per game with 9.92 stops per contest. He recorded safety against Utah State, and had a forced fumble and a fumble recovery to go along with 6.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks. He was named the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week after UNM’s 35-10 win over UCLA.

Johnson was UNM’s leading receiver with 61 catches for 772 yards and three touchdowns. Three times, Johnson recorded at least 130 yards receiving, and his three catches on UNM’s final drive against UNLV led to a 40-35 win. Johnson averaged 64.3 yards per game, which ranked 60^th nationally. He also ranked tied for 49^th with 5.1 receptions per game, and he ranked third in the Mountain West with his 61 receptions.