CSC Release
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Saint John's University senior defensive lineman
Michael Wozniak (New Hope, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) was named a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American for the second-consecutive season on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
Wozniak was named to the second team after earning first-team accolades a year ago.
Nominees must be of a sophomore academic standing or better, with a 3.50 GPA or higher. The Academic All-District and All-America teams are voted upon and selected by registered members of CSC (formerly the College Sports Information Directors of America).
SJU has now had 21 football Academic All-Americans over the last 19 seasons (35 overall).
A unanimous 2022 All-American (Associated Press second team, American Football Coaches Association second team and D3football.com third team), Wozniak was also named a 2022 Gagliardi Trophy semifinalist and the 2022 MIAC Defensive Player of the Year this fall. The two-time All-MIAC pick started all 12 games at defensive end and finished with 43 tackles (18 solo), including 13.5 for a loss and nine sacks, as well as nine quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles and a blocked kick. He totaled 20.0 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks over his last 14 games going back to the 2021 season and ended his Johnnie career with 31.5 tackles for loss and 19.5 sacks in 32 games.
An accounting major with a 3.86 GPA, Wozniak earned an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a finalist for the National Football Foundation's (NFF) Campbell Trophy, nicknamed the academic Heisman, and represented SJU as a member of the 2022 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Dec. 5-7 in Las Vegas.
He was selected to the 22-man, 2022 Allstate American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team Sept. 19, earned MIAC Defensive Player of the Year honors with his second-straight All-MIAC honor Nov. 21 and was named a semifinalist for the 2022 Gagliardi Trophy Nov. 22. Wozniak also earned his second consecutive Academic All-District honor Nov. 22.
The three-time Academic All-MIAC honoree (minimum 3.5 GPA) was a unanimous 2022 preseason All-America and a 2021 D3football.com All-America first-team selection. He started all 12 games and finished with a team-leading 15.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks, including 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in two NCAA playoff games, in 2021. Wozniak returned to the field in 2021 after suffering a season-ending hand injury on the first defensive play of the 2019 season - a tackle for loss - at Wisconsin-Stout.
Off the field, Wozniak is in his fifth year raising money for a pair of SJU football's initiatives, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Tackle Cancer. He was also a member of the Johnnies' Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which holds an annual Kids Fighting Hunger meal-packing event every March, for two academic years (2020-21 and 2021-22). Wozniak also helped organize a swim meet for local Special Olympians in Spring 2022 in Collegeville.
Back home, Wozniak volunteered to coach 2nd- and 3rd-grade youth football for the Armstrong Cooper Youth Football Association.
SJU (10-2, 7-1 MIAC) won its fourth-consecutive conference championship - an MIAC-record 36th title overall - and made its 32nd postseason appearance (28th in Division III) this fall.
