COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech senior recevier Cody Matthews has earned a spot on the 2014 Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District team, one of just three players from the Ohio Valley Conference to receive that distinction.
Matthews, a business administration major from Gallatin, Tenn., has constucted a 3.82 grade point average during his time on the Golden Eagle roster. His name now goes forward for consideration for Academic All-America honors.
The second-leading receiver on the team this season with 29 catches for 363 yards and three touchdowns, Matthews has accumulated 91 career receptions for 1,340 yards and 13 touchdowns. With one more catch, he will move into the Top 10 in career receptions in school history.
After a redshirt season in 2010, he played in nine games as a freshman while helping the Golden Eagles capture the 2011 OVC championship with 12 catches for 169 yards and three touchdowns. As a sophomore, he pulled in 28 passes for 477 yards with four TDs. In his junior season, he saw action in just seven games before being sidelined with injuries. He managed 22 catches for 330 yards.
He has made eight consecutive appearances on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, and has been listed every year on the OVC Commissioner's Academeic Honor Roll.
Matthews is the only OVC player on the District 3 team, which consists of all Division I football programs in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. The only other OVC players to earn all-district honors were offensive lineman Max Holcombe and defensive back Jermaine Hough from Jacksonville State.
His selections raises Tech's total since 1985 to 114 student-athletes to earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors. His selection gives the Tech football program a total of 29 Academic All-District selections. Previous football winners are Barry Wilmore (1985), Andy Rittenhouse (1985, 1986, 1987), Joel Chandler (1986), Clark Rickey (1987), Spencer Hissam (1990), Ted Lockerby (1991, 1992), Scott Trent (1995), Jeff Norman (1997), Wes Gallagher (1997, 198, 1999), Nick Solomon (2000), Grant Swallows (2001), Trey Perry (2002), Brett Vavra (2004), Jon Mahan (2005), Taylor Askew (2007, 2008 and 2009), Bradley Thpmpson (2007, 2008), Corey Watson (2011), James Normand (2011), and Steven Bush (2012).
Matthews and the Golden Eagles will be on the field Saturday at 1:30 p.m. to host Southeast Missouri in an Ohio Valley Conference game, which is also Homecoming for Tech.
