RICHMOND, VA -- University of Delaware senior football co-captain Mike Byrne, who earned All-American honors for his play on the field and national academic honors for work in the classroom, has been named a co-winner of the Colonial Athletic Association Student-Athlete of the Year Award.

Byrne (at right), a 6-6, 295 lb. offensive tackle who earned his degree in just three and a half years as a double major in psychology and criminal justice in December, shared the award with Villanova senior tight end Matt Sherry. The selection was made from a vote of league member sports information directors and was based on overall performance on both the playing field and in the classroom. Byrne, who posted a 3.49 grade point average, becomes the first UD football player to earn the conference student-athlete award since Ben Cross was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2003. Sherry graduated from Villanova last May with a degree in finance.

Byrne and eight other players - senior offensive tackle Greg Benson, sophomore wide receiver Mark Mackey, sophomore quarterback Brad Casalvieri, senior quarterback Joe Flacco, junior offensive lineman Jon Herrman, junior linebacker Brian Brown, sophomore defensive lineman Rick Jarnagin, junior linebacker Erik Johnson, and senior linebacker J.T. Laws - were also named to the CAA Academic All-Conference team. To be eligible for that award, student-athletes must be a starter or key reserve, have sophomore or older eligibility, and carry a 3.0 or higher cumulative grade point average.

A native of Lititz, PA (Manheim Central High School), Byrne helped lead the Blue Hens to an 11-3 record and a berth in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision national title game in December. Delaware also was named the Lambert Cup Trophy winner and the Eastern College Athletic Conference Team of the Year as the top football team in the East. Byrne earned first team All-CAA and first team All-ECAC honors while earning All-American honors on four different teams - first team Walter Camp Foundation, first team College Sporting News, second team The Sports Network, and third team Associated Press.

In addition, he was named to the ESPN The Magazine/College Sports Information Directors of America District 2 All-Academic team and earned a spot on the FCS Athletics Directors Association National Academic All-Star team. He was a three-year member of the conference all-academic team.

Benson (Plantation/Plantation, FL) is an education leadership major; Mackey (Central Dauphin/Harrisburg, PA) is a math education major; Casalvieri (Lawrenceville/Monmouth Junction, NJ) is an exercise physiology major; Flacco (Audubon/Audubon, NJ) is an accounting major; Herrman (Central Catholic/McKees Rocks, PA) is an accounting and management information systems major; Brown (Sandy Creek/Fayetteville, GA) is a sport management and legal studies major; Jarnagin (Liberty/Bethlehem, PA) is a business major; Johnson (Fairport/Fairport, NY) is a health and physical education major; and Laws (William Penn/St. George’s, DE) is an exercise physiology major.

A total of 110 players from the 12 CAA institutions were honored on the CAA Academic All-Conference team.