In his two years at The University of Texas, Drew Stubbs has been a star of note for this year's defending NCAA National Championship baseball team.

Numerous on-the-field honors have come to Stubbs, a native to Atlanta, Texas.

To wit: All-American and All-Big 12 recognition in both his freshman and sophomore years. National Player of the Week honors last year.

A soft-spoken gentleman, Stubbs is appreciative, but certainly not one to seek the spotlight.

Except…

Mike Forcucci, assistant media relations director who handles baseball, said there was a time that Stubbs queried him on how persons were selected to an All-American team.

That team?

Stubbs was interested in the Academic All-American Team.

"I told him that I'd submitted his name and had done the paperwork," Forcucci said.

Could there be a better commentary on Stubbs and where his priorities lie?

Thus, he is the Male Student-Athlete of the Month for February.

And just as his play for the baseball team merited the aforementioned honors, Stubbs' work in the classroom did the same.

To wit: First-team Academic All Big 12. ESPN The Magazine third-team Academic All-American. ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI. Five-time Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll.

Stubbs, a junior business management major, also was recognized in 2005 as a Chick-fil-A Community Champion.

"I appreciate being the Male Student-Athlete of the Month," Stubbs said. "I take pride in my academics. Baseball is not going to last forever. No matter how good you are, you only will be able to play for so long. Having your education to fall back on, that's forever."

Dr. Randa Ryan, senior associate athletics director for student services, praises Stubbs for his high level of personal responsibility in every area of his life.

"He is a super student," Ryan begins, noting Stubbs' 3.6 grade point average. "He always takes a heavy load of classes and, in addition, takes correspondence classes with the focus on being able to graduate early.

"Drew is a leader on the team and a perfect role model when it comes to getting it done in the classroom, as well as on the field, at a very high level."

Ryan did admit she had one dilemma related to Stubbs this spring.

"I haven't yet been able to get his picture up in the study center with the rest of the Academic All-Americans," she said. "And I assure you that Drew is the first to let me know when I see him."

Stubbs says he enjoys the success in the classroom, as he enjoys the success on the field.

"Because of all the time baseball takes," he said, "it is important that you are able to manage your time to be able to study and complete your schoolwork. You might be tired. You might have been traveling. But you have to get your work done.

"To me, that's just another challenge that I want to meet."

For Stubbs, there haven't been many challenges that he hasn't been able to meet and overcome at UT both on the diamond and in the classroom.