IRVING, Texas – Baylor senior offensive lineman Spencer Drango was one of 135 student-athletes to be selected as a semifinalist for the 2015 William V. Campbell Trophy Thursday. The honor recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation.
In the classroom, the Cedar Park, Texas, product has been a three-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree, while earning 2013 first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District honors. He is a two-time Baylor Dean’s List honoree and an eight-time Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection. Drango graduated in December 2014 with a degree in Finance and is currently working on his Master’s.
On the field, Drango is an All-American and a two-time All-Big 12 first team honoree. He is a four-year starter at left tackle and has a team-high 37 career starts. A year ago, Drango started all 13 games at left tackle to earn consensus 2014 All-America and unanimous first-team All-Big 12 honors. He was named the Big 12 Co-Offensive Lineman of Year, after leading an offensive line that powered BU’s running game to 215.5 yards per game (second in Big 12) and ranked fourth in league with 1.85 average sacks allowed.
In the community, Drango has traveled to Brazil for a mission trip with Baylor student-athletes in May 2015. He is the president of BU’s chapter of Uplifting Athletes, which is an organization that raises research dollars for rare diseases. Drango has also led monthly Fellowship of Christian Athletes gatherings at a local middle school over the last two years and has participated in Baylor’s ‘Feed My Starving Children’ initiative in 2012, 2014 and 2015.
It is the fifth honor for Drango in 2015, after also making the Outland, Rotary Lombardi, Senior CLASS and Wuerffel lists as well.
Drango is the first semifinalist for the honor at Baylor since tight end Jordan Najvar was selected in 2013.
The NFF will announce 15 finalists on Oct. 29, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to New York City for the 58th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. At the event, one member of the class will be declared the winner of the 26th 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 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.
