Maryland football’s Taulia Tagovailoa, Johns Hopkins’ Luke Schuermann named finalists for ‘Academic Heisman’

Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa and Johns Hopkins defensive end Luke Schuermann were named Wednesday morning among 16 national finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy, an award nicknamed the “Academic Heisman” for its recognition of a college football player who excels in academics, community service and the field.
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As finalists and members of the National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete Class, Tagovailoa and Schuermann will each receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. If one of them wins the Campbell Trophy, which will be announced Dec. 5 in Las Vegas, the scholarship will increase to $25,000.
“These young men have an unrelenting commitment to excellence in all aspects of their lives, and they represent all that is right in college football,” said former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning, who chairs the NFF. His sons Peyton and Eli were NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively, with Peyton winning the Campbell Trophy in 1997. “As strong leaders in the vein of the trophy’s namesake Bill Campbell, they all serve as living examples that the ‘Future For Football’ is bright. We are excited to honor their hard work and outstanding leadership with postgraduate scholarships.”
Tagovailoa is only the second NFF National Scholar-Athlete in Maryland history and the first since Jonathan Claiborne in 1977. Tagovailoa joins Penn State’s Olu Fashanu and Michigan’s Zak Zinter as Big Ten players vying for the award.
In three seasons with the Terps (5-2), the 5-foot-11, 208-pound Tagovailoa has set program career records for passing yards (9,805), touchdown passes (67), total touchdowns (79), completion percentage (.667) and 300-yard passing games (14). The redshirt senior is the first quarterback in school history to reach the 9,000-yard milestone.
Tagovailoa ranks in the top 15 among current NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks in all-time completion percentage (seventh), passing yards per game (12th), completions per game (12th) and total offense (14th). He is also a candidate for the Maxwell, Davey O’Brien and Manning awards and the Polynesian Player of the Year honor.
Tagovailoa graduated in December with a bachelor’s in family science and is pursuing a master’s in African American studies with a 3.61 GPA. He has participated in several community service events in the Washington area such as reading to students at area elementary schools and packaging food for the needy at food shelters.
Schuermann joins 2014 graduate John Arena and 2022 graduate JR Woods as the only finalists in Blue Jays history. Johns Hopkins is one of three universities to produce a member of the NFF’s Scholar-Athlete Class in each of the past two years with Holy Cross and Kansas State being the others.
In his third season as a starter for No. 7 Johns Hopkins (7-0), the 6-4, 255-pound Schuermann is a two-time Associated Press All-America, Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Year and All-Centennial Conference first-team selection.
In his career, Schuermann has amassed 156 tackles, 59 tackles for loss and 33 sacks. Not only does he own the all-time record for sacks, but he also ranks second in program history in tackles for loss and set a single-season record for sacks (14) and tackles for loss (26 1/2) in 2022. He ranks second among active players in all four NCAA divisions in career sacks per game (1.1) and first in tackles for loss per game (2.0).
A mechanical engineering major, Schuermann has a 3.61 cumulative GPA. He is the football team’s leader in its Team Impact Initiative and finished an internship in research and development with Rawlings Sporting Goods last summer, studying the effectiveness of a lattice or foam to reduce the severity of a baseball’s impact on a batting helmet.
Schuermann also participated in the Leadership Coaching Program at Johns Hopkins where he took part in weekly self-reflection and twice-monthly coaching sessions to identify strategies to enhance his capacity for personal leadership.