Rebels’ Sean Rawlings Tabbed as Semifinalist for Campbell Trophy

Ole Miss Football vs Mississippi State on November 26th, 2016 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, MS.
Photos by Petre Thomas/Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss senior center Sean Rawlings has been tabbed as a semifinalist for the 2018 William V. Campbell Trophy, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame announced last Wednesday.

The award recognizes an individual as the best football scholar-athlete in the nation.

Rawlings, who is on the Rimington Trophy watch list for the best center in the country, has appeared in 36 career games at Ole Miss, including 30 starts along the offensive line during his four years in a Rebel uniform. Rawlings helps anchor an Ole Miss O-line that pass blocks for the top-ranked passing offense in the SEC, averaging 347.5 passing yards per game. The Rebels also rank 14th nationally in total offense (522.8) and 22nd in scoring offense at 42 points per game.

The Madison, Mississippi, native graduated in December 2017 with a degree in business marketing and currently holds a 3.3 GPA. Rawlings has served with Ole Miss football on a mission trip to Haiti in 2016, as well volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Oxford, Hope to Dream, the Sigma Nu Charity Bowl, and the Delta Project.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Oct. 31, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 60th NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class. The finalists will travel to New York City for the 61st NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 4, 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 29th William V. 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.

Named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF’s Gold Medal, the Campbell Trophy® is a 25-pound bronze trophy and increases the amount of the recipient’s grant by $7,000 for a total postgraduate scholarship of $25,000. This year’s postgraduate scholarships will push the program’s all-time distribution to more than $11.5 million.

HottyToddy.com Staff Report