Danny Etling named semifinalist for Campbell Trophy

BATON ROUGE – LSU senior quarterback Danny Etling has been recognized by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame as a semifinalist for the Walter V. Campbell Trophy, which honors the best scholar-athlete in the nation.

Etling, a 2017 LSU graduate, is the Vice-Chair of the Southeastern Conference Football Leadership Council representative and the Tigers’ nominee for the 2017 NABC Good Works Team. The Terre Haute, Indiana, native totaled a 3.741 GPA in mass communication and was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team and SEC Academic Honor Roll member.

A leader in the community, Etling achieved Eagle Scout status as part of his commitment to the Boy Scouts of America. On the field, Etling owns an 11-4 record as LSU’s starting quarterback. Among his accomplishments, Etling paired with running back Derrius Guice in 2016 to become the first duo in school history to have a 300-yard passing game and 200-yard rushing game.

Etling is one of 181 semifinalists for the award. To be nominated, candidates must be a senior or graduate student, in their final year of playing eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2, have outstanding football ability and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Nov. 1, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class. The finalists will travel to New York City for the 60th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 5, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports.

2017 NFF WILLIAM V. CAMPBELL TROPHY^® SEMIFINALISTS NOTES

• 59th Year of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Program
• 181 Nominations
• 3.59 Average GPA
• 8 Nominees with a perfect 4.0 GPA
• 40 Nominees with a 3.8 GPA or better
• 60 Nominees with a 3.7 GPA or Better
• 27 Academic All-America Selections
• 114 Captains
• 76 All-Conference Picks
• 19 All-Americans
• 10 Members of the 2017 AFCA Good Works Team
• 71 Nominees from the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)
• 37 Nominees from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)
• 30 Nominees from NCAA Division II
• 33 Nominees from NCAA Division III
• 10 Nominees from the NAIA
• 102 Offensive Players
• 67 Defensive Players
• 12 Special Teams Players

Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on both a player’s academic and athletic accomplishments, and it has recognized 828 outstanding individuals since its inception. The Campbell Trophy^®, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program’s prestige, having previously honored two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and five first-round NFL draft picks.

In 2011, the NFF and Fidelity Investments launched a multi-year initiative between the two organizations to celebrate the scholar-athlete ideal and a joint commitment to higher education. As part of the initiative, Fidelity became the first presenting sponsor of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program. In 2014, Fidelity became the presenting sponsor of the Campbell Trophy^®.

Fidelity also helped launch the NFF Faculty Salutes, which recognize the contributions of the faculty athletics representatives at each of the institutions with an NFF National Scholar-Athlete. As part of the initiative, the NFF presents each of the faculty representatives with a plaque, and Fidelity donates $5,000 for the academic support services at each school with a total of $440,000 distributed from 2011-16.

The past recipients of The William V. Campbell Trophy^® include: Air Force’s Chris Howard (1990); Florida’s Brad Culpepper (1991); Colorado’s Jim Hansen (1992); Virginia’s Thomas Burns (1993); Nebraska’s Rob Zatechka (1994); Ohio State’s Bobby Hoying (1995); Florida’s Danny Wuerffel (1996); Tennessee’s Peyton Manning (1997); Georgia’s Matt Stinchcomb (1998); Marshall’s Chad Pennington (1999); Nebraska’s Kyle Vanden Bosch (2000); Miami (Fla.)’s Joaquin Gonzalez (2001); Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.)’s Brandon Roberts (2002); Ohio State’s Craig Krenzel (2003); Tennessee’s Michael Munoz (2004); LSU’s Rudy Niswanger (2005); Rutgers’ Brian Leonard (2006); Texas’ Dallas Griffin (2007); California’s Alex Mack (2008); Florida’s Tim Tebow (2009); Texas’ Sam Acho (2010); Army West Point’s Andrew Rodriguez (2011); Alabama’s Barrett Jones (2012); Penn State’s John Urschel (2013); Duke’s David Helton (2014); Oklahoma’s Ty Darlington (2015); and Western Michigan’s Zach Terrell (2016).

2017 NFF WILLIAM V. CAMPBELL TROPHY^® SEMIFINALISTS, PRESENTED BY FIDELITY INVESTMENTS
Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)
Akron – Zach Guiser
Arizona State – Jacom Brimhall
Arkansas State – Blaise Taylor
Auburn – Daniel Carlson
Ball State – Vinnie Palazeti
Boise State – Mason Hampton
Bowling Green State – Nate Locke
Brigham Young – Keyan Norman
Buffalo – Tim Roberts
California – Matt Anderson
Central Michigan – Joe Ostman
Duke – Gabe Brandner
East Carolina – Thomas Sirk
Eastern Michigan – Jason Beck
Florida – Johnny Townsend
Georgia – Jeb Blazevich
Georgia State – Chandon Sullivan
Georgia Tech – Andrew Marshall
Illinois – Malik Turner
Iowa State – Jake Campos
Kansas State – Trent Tanking
Kentucky – Austin MacGinnis
LSU – Danny Etling
Marshall – Ryan Yurachek
Maryland – Adam Greene
Memphis – Riley Ferguson
Miami (Fla.) – Braxton Berrios
Michigan – Mike Wroblewski
Michigan State – Brian Allen
Middle Tennessee State – Canon Rooker
Minnesota – Andrew Stelter
Mississippi – Gary Wunderlich
Mississippi State – Martinas Rankin
Nebraska – Chris Weber
Nevada – Austin Corbett
New Mexico State – Dalton Herrington
North Carolina State – Cole Cook
North Texas – Andy Flusche
Northern Illinois – Shane Wimann
Northwestern – Justin Jackson
Notre Dame – Greer Martini
Oklahoma State – Brad Lundblade
Old Dominion – Rob Thompson
Oregon State – Nick Porebski
Penn State – Brandon Smith
Pittsburgh – Ryan Winslow
Rice – D.J. Green
San Jose State – Nate Velichko
SMU – Evan Brown
South Alabama – Harrison Louden
South Carolina – Cory Helms
Southern Mississippi – Picasso Nelson
Stanford – David Bright
Syracuse – Jordan Martin
TCU – Patrick Morris
Temple – Nick Sharga
Tennessee – Todd Kelly Jr.
Texas State – Gabe Loyd
Texas Tech – Cameron Batson
Toledo – Cody Thompson
Tulane – John Leglue
UNLV – Kurt Palandech
UTSA – Brady Jones
Vanderbilt – Tommy Openshaw
Virginia – Micah Kiser
Wake Forest – Cam Serigne
Washington State – Peyton Pelluer
West Virginia – Mike Molina
Western Kentucky – Marcus Ward
Wisconsin – Joe Ferguson
Wyoming – Drew Van Maanen