Moon Township, Pa. – Redshirt senior linebacker Kyle Cooper (Hurricane, W.Va. / Hurricane) and junior offensive lineman Nick Faraci (McDonald, Pa. / South Fayette) of the Robert Morris University football team were both named Capital One Academic All-District First Team in an announcement made by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Thursday afternoon.
 
As a result of their first-team selections, both Colonials will now advance to the Academic All-America ballot.
 
This is the first such honor for both Cooper and Faraci, but the RMU football program is no stranger to academic successes.
 
These two accolades give the Colonial program at least one Academic All-District honoree in each of the past 11 seasons, a span in which Robert Morris has taken home 21 overall selections. To put that in perspective, no other Northeast Conference (NEC) school has an active streak of football academic all-district selections longer than two years.
 
RMU football has also now had multiple student-athletes earn academic all-district honors in each of the past four years.
 
The Division I Academic All-District football teams encompass student-athletes from both the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) levels. This means that Colonials were competing against athletes from the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, and the SEC to gain a spot on their district's 20-member team.
 
Cooper has a 3.73 grade point average as a sport management major and is also minoring in legal studies.
 
Cooper has started each of the eight games this season at linebacker and has produced 62 tackles, second-most on the team, including 27 of the solo variety. Cooper ranks third in the NEC in tackles per game (7.8) and should surpass his previous career best in tackles by the end of the season. His best game of the season might be his most recent as he registered an interception, the second of his career, and forced a fumble, the first of his career, in helping RMU to a win over first-place Bryant. Cooper reset his single-game career high in tackles with 13 in a win at VMI earlier this season.
 
Cooper has more tackles than the other two linebackers to claim honors in his district combined.
 
Faraci carries a 3.93 grade point average as a nursing major.
 
Faraci has started 19 consecutive games at center for Robert Morris. He was one of only two offensive linemen to start every game last year for RMU and currently has the most consecutive starts of any Colonial that competes on the offensive side of the ball. He served as the offensive captain for a game last season and helped RMU rush for at least 170 yards in four consecutive games, one of only two such occurrences by the Colonials since 2001. Faraci tallied a key fumble recovery earlier this year against Duquesne, which led to a Colonial touchdown drive.
 
Faraci had one of the top 10 GPA's nationally among all Division I offensive linemen named Academic All-District.
 
With these selections, a total of 16 student-athletes from the RMU football program have earned All-District academic honors from CoSIDA. These 16 student athletes have combined for 26 overall selections.
 
Robert Morris will head back on the road this Saturday, Nov. 9, as it takes on Central Connecticut State.