Columbia, Mo. – Mizzou Football’s Nick Bolton (Frisco, Texas) was named a 2020-21 CoSIDA Second-Team Academic All-American, announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Monday. Bolton is the 20th student-athlete in Mizzou football history – and the first since Matt Hoch in 2013 – to earn Academic All-America honors.
Bolton earned a 3.60 GPA as a sport management major, and was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs with the 26th pick in the second round and the 58th overall selection of the 2021 NFL Draft.
In 2020, Bolton finished his Mizzou career as a second-team All-America selection by six different outlets (Associated Press, The Athletic, FWAA, AFCA, Phil Steele and Walter Camp). He was named first-team All-SEC by the league’s coaches and the Associated Press (AP), was a Butkus Award finalist, a Jason Witten Man of the Year semifinalist and was named to the SEC Community Service Team.
On the field, his 67 solo tackles led the conference while his 95 total tackles ranked seventh. He also ranked among the SEC’s top 15 in tackles per game (9.5, seventh) and tackles-for-loss (8.0, 13th). In addition, he added 2.0 sacks, five pass break-ups and a fumble recovery in 2020.
In 2019, Bolton had a breakout sophomore season that saw him earn national honors after leading the SEC in tackles during the regular season (107). He also led the SEC with his 8.92 tackles-per-game average and was Pro Football Focus’ top-graded SEC linebacker. He earned All-SEC first-team honors from both the league’s coaches and the AP, and was named a Pro Football Focus third-team All-American. In three seasons with the Tigers, Bolton finished his collegiate career with 224 total tackles, 16.0 TFL and 4.0 sacks.
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