DALLAS – Eleven Conference USA football student-athletes were named to the 2021 C-USA Football All-Academic Team for excelling both on and off the field this season. Middle Tennessee's Reed Blankenship made the prestigious team.

Blankenship, the school's all-time leading tackler, is a three-time member of the C-USA Honor Roll and was a nominee for the 2021 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team while also being a 2021 Senior Class Award candidate.

Blankenship, who earned his undergraduate degree in exercise science and is working on his MBA, enters the Bahamas Bowl as the team's leading tackler with 106 stops to go with 10 TFLs and a sack. The senior also owns an interception, nine pass breakups, three fumble returns and two forced fumbles.