LEXINGTON, Va. – VMI sophomore defensive back AJ Smith was named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America Division I football second team as selected by CoSIDA. The announcement was made Monday afternoon.

Smith, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, shared the team lead in total tackles with 90 stops, which tied him with teammate Elliott Brewster for ninth in the SoCon in tackles per game (9.1). He led VMI defenders with 55 solo tackles.

Smith, named Google Cloud Academic All-District 3 (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee) along with VMI defensive lineman Zach Baker in November, holds a 3.91 GPA in mechanical engineering.

A two-year starter in the VMI secondary at safety with 18 career starts, Smith posted 2018 double-digit tackle games against ETSU (11), Western Carolina (10) and The Citadel (10). He also had seven games with nine or more tackles and was credited with three pass breakups, a forced fumble and a sack during the 2018 season.

The complete Google Cloud Academic All-America teams can be found here.