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Jet Toner named a semifinalist for the NFF William V. Campbell Trophy

Toner was nominated and selected as Stanford’s best scholar-athlete and is on the shortlist for the coveted award

By Cam Mellor
Northwestern v Stanford

The 2020 William V. Campbell Trophy has landed on a list of semifinalists and Stanford Cardinal K Jet Toner has been nominated to such a list.

Toner was selected to the list based upon meeting the criterion and being nominated by Stanford as their best scholar-athlete on the football team.

As a semifinalist, Toner now has the chance to:

  • An opportunity to receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship, which is awarded to each of the 12-to-14 finalists for the Campbell Trophy® Presented by Mazda.
  • An opportunity to be the winner of the coveted 24-pound bronze Campbell Trophy, which comes with a $25,000 post-graduate scholarship and an appearance (virtual this year) on the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on ESPN.
  • An opportunity to win a $5,000 donation from Fidelity Investments to support the school’s academic services department.

There were 199 semifinalists this season, a record-setting number for the award, and during the Home Depot Awards Show later this year, the finalists and eventual winner will be selected.

“This is terrific news. To set a record for the number of Campbell nominees is extra special during the pandemic because it shows how the stature of the award continues to rise even during these challenging times,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning, whose sons Peyton (Campbell Trophy® winner) and Eli were named NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. “We have worked hard to expand the profile of the award, and it’s extremely gratifying to have so many schools participate this year with nominations. We believe it sends an important message to the younger student-athletes that you truly can do it all, succeeding on the field, in the classroom and as leaders in the community.”

Justin Herbert, former quarterback for the Oregon Ducks, won the award last season.

To be nominated by your school, the student-athletes must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility. They must also have a GPA of at least 3.2, outstanding football ability as a first-team player or contributor while also demonstrating strong leadership and citizenship off the field.

The award is named after the late Bill Campbell, aka the Coach of Silicon Valley. After being the team captain on Columbia’s 1961 Ivy League Championship season, Campbell transitioned to a career outside of football at the age of 39 and mentored the likes of Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Google’s quartet of Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Sundar Pichai and Eric Schmidt as well as many others. He went on to be the CEO and chairman of Intuit and was dubbed the Trillion Dollar Coach and affectionately as the Coach of Silicon Valley.

On the field, Toner has been a two-time All-Pac-12 nominee, two-time Lou Groza Star of the Week and a two-time Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week. Of the field, the fifth-year senior has been a two-time All-Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll selection, a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic and the Co-SIDA Academic All First-Team selection in 2018.

Congratulations, Jet!

Go Card!