The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Football places three on Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team
06.23.2016 | Football
Michael Dickson, Anthony Wheeler and Connor Williams were honored as freshmen who achieved on the field and in the classroom.
Texas Football placed three student-athletes on the 2015-16 Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team, including P Michael Dickson, LB Anthony Wheeler and OT Connor Williams, as announced by the conference on Thursday.
All three were members of both the fall and spring Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll in the 2015-16 school year.
Nominated by each institution's director of student-athlete support services, student-athletes on the Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team must be new, first-time/incoming freshmen that have completed 24 semester hours of non-remedial coursework and achieved a cumulative GPA of at least 3.00 (4.0 scale). Additionally, the student-athlete must have participated in at least one of their team's scheduled contests and must have been a member of their respective team for their sport's entire NCAA Championship segment.
Dickson emerged at punter in the 2015 season and averaged 41.3 yards per kick with 32 fair catches, 19 inside the 20 and 17 punts over 50 yards to help Texas rank 19th in the nation in punt return defense (3.85 ypr).
Wheeler played in all 12 games on defense and special teams, making starts against Kansas State and Baylor. He recorded 36 tackles (22 solo) with one TFL, one fumble recovery and one pass breakup.
Williams, who started all 12 games, combined with OG Patrick Vahe to make Texas the only school in the nation to start two true freshmen on the offensive line. He helped block for a rushing attack that ranked 18th in the nation with 224.8 yards per game. That average was even higher in the last seven games at 263.0 ypg. The offense also became only the fourth unit at Texas since 1950 to record three games with six rushing TDs in a season.
