Search Shop
Announce
Sep 29, 2021

Bockhorst Named Campbell Trophy Semifinalist

The National Football Foundation announced today that Clemson offensive lineman Matt Bockhorst has been named a semifinalist for the 2021 William V. Campbell Trophy. A full press release with additional information from the NFF is included below.


IRVING, Texas (Sept. 29, 2021) – The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) proudly announced today the 176 semifinalists for the 2021 William V. Campbell Trophy®, college football’s premier scholar-athlete award. The impressive list of candidates boasts an impressive 3.66 average GPA, with more than two-thirds of the semifinalists having already earned their bachelor’s degrees.

Celebrating its 32nd year, the Campbell Trophy® recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

2021 WILLIAM V. CAMPBELL TROPHY® SEMIFINALISTS NOTES

– 32nd year of the William V. Campbell Trophy®
– 63rd year of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards Presented by Fidelity Investments
– 176 Nominations
– 3.66 Average GPA
– 105 Nominees who have already earned their bachelor’s degrees
– 12 Nominees who have earned a master’s degree
– 5 Nominees with a perfect 4.0 GPA
– 52 Nominees with a 3.8 GPA or better
– 65 Nominees with a 3.7 GPA or better
– 34 Academic All-America Selections
– 107 Captains
– 97 All-Conference picks
– 22 All-Americans

“These 176 impressive candidates truly represent the scholar-athlete ideal,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning, whose sons Peyton (Campbell Trophy® winner) and Eli were named NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. “For more than 60 years, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards have honored more than 800 college football players who have been successful on the football field, in the classroom and as leaders in the community. And we are excited to celebrate the 32nd year of the Campbell Trophy®, which honors the best of the best. This year’s semifinalists further illustrate the power of our great sport in developing the next generation of influential leaders.”

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Oct. 27, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2021 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to the ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas for the 63rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 7, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. Live during the event, one member of the class will be declared as the winner of the 32nd Campbell Trophy® and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.

Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of playing eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.

“The NFF would like to personally congratulate each of the nominees as well as their schools and coaches on their tremendous accomplishments,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are extremely proud to highlight each semifinalist’s achievements, showcasing their ability to balance academics and athletics at the highest level. The NFF Awards Committee will have an incredibly difficult task in selecting the finalists from this outstanding group of candidates.”

Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards Presented by Fidelity Investments celebrate their 63rd year in 2021. The awards were the first initiative in history to grant postgraduate scholarships based on both a player’s academic and athletic accomplishments, and the NFF has recognized 878 outstanding individuals since the program’s inception. This year’s postgraduate scholarships will push the program’s all-time distribution to more than $12.1 million.

The Campbell Trophy® was first awarded in 1990, adding to the program’s prestige. Past recipients include two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and seven first-round NFL draft picks. Named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, the trophy has been prominently displayed inside its official home at the New York Athletic Club since 2013, and the winner is honored each year during a special luncheon at the venue.

An All-Ivy League player and the captain of Columbia’s 1961 Ivy League championship team, Bill Campbell found his true calling after an unlikely career change at age 39 from Columbia football coach to advertising executive. His ability to recruit, develop and manage talented executives – all lessons learned on the gridiron – proved to be a critical component of his ability to inspire his business teams to the highest levels of success.

As the CEO and chairman of Intuit, Campbell’s unique talent in building teams earned him the affectionate title of the “Coach of Silicon Valley,” and he used the lessons of the gridiron to mentor Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Sundar Pichai and Eric Schmidt of Google, Scott Cook and Brad Smith of Intuit, John Doerr of Kleiner-Perkins, Dick Costolo at Twitter, Diane Greene of VMWare and countless others.

Campbell joined the NFF Board in 1978 while he was still a coach at Columbia, and he continued to serve with distinction until his passing in 2016. In 2004, the NFF recognized Campbell’s contributions and accomplishments by presenting him with the NFF Gold Medal, the organization’s highest honor. In 2009, the NFF renamed college football’s premier scholar-athlete award as The William V. Campbell Trophy® in his honor.

As part of its support of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards, Fidelity Investments helped launch the NFF Faculty Salutes, which recognize the contributions of the faculty athletics representatives at each of the institutions with a finalist for the Campbell Trophy®. Once the finalists are selected, the NFF will present each of their faculty athletics representatives with a plaque and Fidelity will donate $5,000 for the academic support services at each school. The salutes have recognized 139 FARs since the program’s inception, and Fidelity has made a total of $690,000 in donations.

Here is a breakdown of the 2021 Campbell Trophy® semifinalists by division and position:

– 79 Nominees from the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)
– 36 Nominees from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)
– 15 Nominees from NCAA Division II
– 39 Nominees from NCAA Division III
– 7 Nominees from the NAIA
– 95 Offensive Players
– 64 Defensive Players
– 17 Special Teams Players

The past recipients of the Campbell Trophy® include:

1990 – Chris Howard (Air Force)
1991 – Brad Culpepper (Florida)
1992 – Jim Hansen (Colorado)
1993 – Thomas Burns (Virginia)
1994 – Rob Zatechka (Nebraska)
1995 – Bobby Hoying (Ohio State)
1996 – Danny Wuerffel (Florida)
1997 – Peyton Manning (Tennessee)
1998 – Matt Stinchcomb (Georgia)
1999 – Chad Pennington (Marshall)
2000 – Kyle Vanden Bosch (Nebraska)
2001 – Joaquin Gonzalez (Miami [FL])
2002 – Brandon Roberts (Washington U. in St. Louis [MO])
2003 – Craig Krenzel (Ohio State)
2004 – Michael Munoz (Tennessee)
2005 – Rudy Niswanger (LSU)
2006 – Brian Leonard (Rutgers)
2007 – Dallas Griffin (Texas)
2008 – Alex Mack (California)
2009 – Tim Tebow (Florida)
2010 – Sam Acho (Texas)
2011 – Andrew Rodriguez (Army West Point)
2012 – Barrett Jones (Alabama)
2013 – John Urschel (Penn State)
2014 – David Helton (Duke)
2015 – Ty Darlington (Oklahoma)
2016 – Zach Terrell (Western Michigan)
2017 – Micah Kiser (Virginia)
2018 – Christian Wilkins (Clemson)
2019 – Justin Herbert (Oregon)
2020 – Brady White (Memphis)

2021 WILLIAM V. CAMPBELL TROPHY® SEMIFINALISTS

Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)
Alabama – Chris Owens
Appalachian State – Thomas Hennigan
Arizona – Bryce Wolma
Arkansas – Grant Morgan
Army – Arik Smith
Auburn – Anders Carlson
Baylor – Jalen Pitre
Boise State – Riley Whimpey
Boston College – Zion Johnson
Brigham Young – James Empey
Buffalo – Jack Klenk
California – Elijah Hicks
Central Michigan – Bernhard Raimann
Clemson – Matt Bockhorst
Colorado – Matt Lynch
Connecticut – Brian Keating
Duke – Jake Bobo
Eastern Michigan – Thomas Odukoya
Florida – Jeremiah Moon
Florida Atlantic – John Mitchell
Fresno State – Matt Smith
Georgia State – Jaylon Jones
Georgia Tech – Ryan Johnson
Houston – Donavan Mutin
Illinois – Doug Kramer
Indiana – Jack Tuttle
Iowa – Zach VanValkenburg
Iowa State – Charlie Kolar
Kansas State – Landry Weber
Kentucky – Luke Fortner
Louisiana – Nate Snyder
LSU – Avery Atkins
Memphis – Kylan Watkins
Miami (FL) – Lou Hedley
Michigan – Aidan Hutchinson
Michigan State – AJ Arcuri
Minnesota – Conner Olson
Mississippi – Ben Brown
Mississippi State – Austin Williams
Missouri – Tyler Badie
Navy – Isaac Ruoss
Nebraska – Ben Stille
North Carolina State – Trenton Gill
Northern Illinois – Tyrice Richie
Northwestern – Sam Gerak
Ohio State – Jeremy Ruckert
Oklahoma – Patrick Fields
Oklahoma State – Logan Carter
Old Dominion – Isaac Weaver
Oregon – Dru Mathis
Oregon State – Andrzej Hughes-Murray
Penn State – Sean Clifford
Pittsburgh – Kirk Christodoulou
Purdue – Zander Horvath
Rice – Trey Schuman
Rutgers – Noah Vedral
San Jose State – Jack Snyder
South Carolina – Spencer Eason-Riddle
Southern California – Nick Figueroa
Southern Methodist – Hayden Howerton
Stanford – Thomas Booker
Syracuse – Kingsley Jonathan
Temple – Michael Niese
Tennessee – Matthew Butler
Texas – Cameron Dicker
Texas at San Antonio – Hunter Duplessis
Toledo – Bailey Flint
Tulane – Nick Anderson
UCF – Eriq Gilyard
UCLA – Shea Pitts
UNLV – Charles Williams
Utah – Keegan Markgraf
Utah State – Nick Heninger
Wake Forest – Zach Tom
Washington – Race Porter
West Virginia – Sean Mahone
Western Michigan – Mike Caliendo
Wisconsin – Matt Henningsen
Wyoming – Ayden Eberhardt

Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)
Alabama State – Luke Barnes
Austin Peay – Jack McDonald
Brown – Chad Broome-Webster
Bucknell – Grayson Cherubino
Campbell – Levi Wiggins
Chattanooga – Jerrell Lawson
Columbia – Ben Mathiasmeier
Cornell – Hunter Nourzad
Dartmouth – Evan Hecimovich
Davidson – Eli Turner
Dayton – Brandon Easterling
Duquesne – Jake Dixon
Elon – Davis Cheek
Florida A&M – Chris Faddoul
Georgetown – Ahmad Wilson
Harvard – Spencer Rolland
Holy Cross – Peter Oliver
Lehigh – RaShawn Allen
Marist – Kyle Fleitman
Montana – Dylan Cook
Montana State – Troy Andersen
Morgan State – Shimano Dendoe
North Carolina Central – Jessie Malit
North Dakota – Matt Waletzko
Northern Arizona – DJ Arnson
Northern Iowa – Brawntae Wells
Northwestern State – Gavin Landry
Pennsylvania – Prince Emili
Princeton – James Johnson
South Dakota – Jack Cochrane
South Dakota State – Wes Genant
Stetson – Fermon Reid
Tennessee Tech – Tavin Kilpatrick
Towson – Aaron Grzymkowski
William & Mary – Ryan Ripley
Youngstown State – Christian Turner

Division II
Ashland (OH) – Austin Phillips
Bentley (MA) – Andrew Brazicki
California (PA) – Eric Hudanick
Chadron State (NE) – Dalton Holst
Harding (AR) – Dylan Hendricks
Minnesota Duluth – Dan Monson
Minnesota State – JD Ekowa
Northwest Missouri State – Jackson Barnes
Slippery Rock (PA) – Henry Litwin
Southern Arkansas – Hayden Mallory
Stonehill (MA) – Anton Stoneking
Texas A&M-Commerce – Alex Shillow
Wayne State (MI) – Lane Potter
West Texas A&M – Brandon Blair
Wingate (NC) – Tucker Mullis

Division III
Allegheny (PA) – Jack Parker
Bethel (MN) – Jaran Roste
Carnegie Mellon (PA) – Sean Knight
Case Western Reserve (OH) – Donald Day III
Central (IA) – Blaine Hawkins
Centre (KY) – Patric Edwards
East Texas Baptist – KJ Kelley
Gallaudet (DC) – Timel Benton
Grinnell (IA) – Danny Carter
Hampden-Sydney (VA) – Kaleb Smith
Hardin-Simmons (TX) – Cameron Hanna
Hope (MI) – Brady Eding
Ithaca (NY) – Andrew Vito
Johns Hopkins (MD) – Jacob Fetterolf
Lake Forest (IL) – Jamari Tansmore
Lycoming (PA) – Elijah Shemory
Manchester (IN) – Jalen Masden
Mary Hardin-Baylor (TX) – Sante Parker
Middlebury (VT) – Will Jernigan
Millsaps (MS) – Walter Johnson
New England (ME) – Keegan Stanton-Meas
Ohio Wesleyan – Shane Quin
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) – George Marinopoulos
Rhodes (TN) – Finn Giddings
Saint John’s (MN) – Chris Backes
Shenandoah (VA) – Mason Caldwell
Springfield (MA) – Lou Cocozza
Texas Lutheran – Juan Ocampo
Tufts (MA) – Mike Pedrini
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (NY) – Joshua King
Washington U. in St. Louis (MO) – Andrew Whitaker
Wesleyan (CT) – Justin Johnson
Westminster (PA) – Ian Barr
Wheaton (IL) – Ryan Schwartz
Wisconsin Lutheran – Todd O’Dell Jr.
Wisconsin-Oshkosh – Jason Myrick
Wisconsin-Stout – Haydon Miller
Wisconsin-Whitewater – Ryan Wisniewski
Wooster (OH) – Angelo Petracci

NAIA
Dakota State (SD) – Marcus Vanden Bosch
Lindsey Wilson (KY) – Cameron Dukes
Montana Western – Kyle Schulte
Morningside (IA) – Reid Jurgensmeier
Ottawa (KS) – Colby Johnson
Peru State (NE) – Dylan Dittman
William Penn (IA) – Alex Crehan

share