Jordan Fuller Nominated for 2019 William V. Campbell Trophy

COLUMBUS, Ohio – This past week Ohio State’s Jordan Fuller, a two-time senior captain for the Buckeyes and the team leader among current players in tackles (169) and solo tackles (129), was nominated for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, which is awarded to the outstanding senior scholar-athlete by the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame. The winner is chosen in December from a list of 12-15 scholar-athletes selected by the NFF Awards Committee, each of whom will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship.

Fuller, from Old Tappan, N.J., will be vying to become Ohio State’s 22nd NFF National Scholar-Athlete, and its third winner of the Campbell Trophy, after Bobby Hoying (1995) and Craig Krenzel (2003) previously won the award when it was the Vincent dePaul Draddy Award. Only Nebraska, with 23 NFF Scholar-Athlete award winners, has more national scholar-athletes than Ohio State.

Most NFF National Scholar-Athletes
23 – Nebraska
21 – Ohio State
18 – Notre Dame
18 – Penn State
16 – Army
13 – Georgia
13 – USC
12 – Stanford
12 – Yale
11 – Texas

Criteria for the award is rigorous, and includes a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.20, outstanding football ability, superior academic application and performance and exemplary school leadership and community citizenship. Fuller is outstanding in all four categories.

• He carries an overall 3.601 grade point average in business marketing.
• He is only the 14th two-time team captain in school history and is coming off consecutive seasons where he led the team in tackles in 2018 and was second – by one tackle – in 2017.
• He has earned virtually every academic award available to an undergraduate: first-team Academic All-American in 2018, second team Academic All-American in 2017, Big Ten Conference Distinguished Scholar in 2018, two Academic All-Big Ten Conference honors and three OSU Scholar-Athlete awards.
• He is on the executive board for a campus organization called RAS, or redefining Athletic Standards. Among the handful of events he has helped organize and run include a Back-to-School Bash for local community children and a seminar titled The Buckeye Way: Sexuality, Identity and Relationships.

Fuller took part in the Eugene D. Smith Leadership Institute this summer as a “Bucks Go Pro” intern with the Anomaly Sports Group. He was a sports law intern and chose that area to “better understand the business side of sports.”

He has also worked the Columbus City Schools Special Olympics and the Football Special Skills Invitational. He spoke at a Celebration for Martin Luther King in January and this summer he was a team rep at Big Ten Conference media days.

This past Saturday against Florida Atlantic: Fuller was back to his usual ways of leading the Buckeyes in tackles with seven.

“Jordan Fuller is first class,” said Ohio State co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Jeff Hafley. “He’s respectable. He’s smart. He’s engaged. He has the respect of everyone on the team. He is a quiet leader, but when he has to say something, he does and everyone listens. You can always use him as an example, in terms of how hard he practices, how deliberate he practices and how he always does the right thing.”

Ohio State’s 21 NFF National Scholar-Athletes
2015     Jacoby Boren
2008     Brian Robiskie
2003     Craig Krenzel
1999     Ahmed Plummer
1996     Greg Bellisari
1995     Bobby Hoying
1994     Joey Galloway
1992     Greg Smith
1990     Greg Frey
1989     Joe Staysniak
1985     Mike Lanese
1984     Dave Crecelius
1983     John Frank
1982     Joe Smith
1979     Jim Laughlin
1975     Brian Baschnagel
1973     Randy Gradishar
1970     Rex Kern
1968     David Foley
1965     Willard Sander
1964     Arnold Chonko