Offensive tackle earned a master's degree in civil engineering
TAMPA, FLA., JAN. 27, 2026 – South Florida Football offensive tackle Connor McLaughlin has been named to the 2025 Division I Football Academic All-America First Team by College Sports Communicators (CSC).

A Tampa native who attended Jesuit High School, McLaughlin started all 12 regular season games at right tackle for the Bulls and earned Second Team American All-Conference honors as he helped lead South Florida to a 9-4 record and a third straight bowl appearance.

He is the first South Florida football player to earn First Team Academic All-America honors and the third to be named to an Academic All-America team, joining second team honorees Trent Schneider (2019) and Chaz Hine (2011).

McLaughlin played his final season with the Bulls after graduating from Stanford with a 3.78 undergraduate cumulative grade point average. He earned a master's degree from South Florida in civil engineering, graduating in December with a 4.0 GPA.

A four-time Pac-12 Academic All-Conference honoree and 2025 USF Athletics Honor Roll member, McLaughlin helped the Bulls' offense rank No. 3 nationally in total offense (488.7 ypg), No. 5 in scoring (40.5 ppg) and No. 13 in rushing (212 ypg).

McLaughlin was among eight Bulls that earned 2025 CSC Academic All-District honors. Joining him in earning All-District honors were Byrum Brown, Garret Cates, Nico Gramatica, D.J. Harris, Jacob Merrifield, Thomas Shrader and Adam Zouagui.
All-District honorees had to maintain a 3.5 cumulative GPA, be at least a sophomore and have played in at least 90 percent of games or started at least 66 percent.  

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ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
The USF football program first took the field in 1997 and completed its 29th season in 2025. In 2025, Bulls went 9-4, earned a third straight bowl appearance, made the program's first College Football Playoff ranking appearance, and were ranked four times in the weekly AP Top 25 poll. USF completed construction on a new $22-million Indoor Performance Facility in 2023 and a $349-million on-campus stadium and football operations center broke ground in the fall of 2024 and is slated for completion by 2027. The Bulls have posted 18 winning seasons, earned 16 All-America selections (including two consensus selections, the last coming in 2021), as well as 35 first-team all-conference honorees. USF has had 30 players selected in the NFL Draft while the Bulls have made 13 bowl game appearances (going 8-5), which is tied for the third-most in the first 25 seasons of a program's bowl eligibility. USF posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, logging a program-record 11-2 mark in 2016, while finishing both seasons ranked in the Top 25. USF spent a program-record 20 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 during the 2016 and 2017 campaigns and reached as high as No. 2 in the Associated Press rankings during the 2007 season.