Robert Coury Selected as a William V. Campbell Trophy Semifinalist
(IRVING, Texas) – Selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced the 203 semifinalists for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by Fidelity Investments. The award recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the country for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. Carnegie Mellon's graduate student linebacker Robert Coury is one of 44 Division III players on the list of 203 student-athletes.
Of the 44 Division III student-athletes, Coury is joined by Carson Messemer of Allegheny, Dawson Dietz of Washington & Jefferson and Matthew Howard of Westminster, as the four semifinalists from the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC).
Through three games this season, Coury has 20 tackles, 3.0 sacks, 5.5 tackles-for-loss, a fumble recovery, a blocked punt and leads the nation with three forced fumbles. He holds the school record with 52.0 tackles-for-loss for his career, ranks third in total tackles with 309 for his career and has 20.0 sacks for his career which ties him for fourth all-time in program history. Coury currently heads a defense that leads the nation in scoring defense allowing 2.3 points per contest and is second in total defense allowing 108.3 yards per game.
Coury has earned six All-America honors in the last two years, including being recognized by the American Football Coach Association (AFCA), the Associated Press and D3football.com. Coury was the first Tartan in program history to be honored in back-to-back seasons by all three organizations. He is also a three-time All-Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) First Team selection. In addition to his three All-America honors for his 2023 season, Coury was also named a semifinalist for the Gagliardi Trophy and the Region VII Division III Commissioner's Association (DIIICA)/Chi Alpha Sigma Regional Student-Athlete of the Year.
Off the field, Coury carries a 3.97 GPA and is currently pursuing his master's in mechanical engineering. He is a two-time Academic All-America by the College Sports Communicators America. Coury has volunteered at the Western Spring Sectional competition of the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania, Get in the Game - Be The Match and Rise Against Hunger. He has worked on numerous projects, including the Smart Walk Design Prototype where he designed a walker attachment using sensor to vibration motor communication to benefit disabled individuals.
Coury has been a manufacturing engineer intern for Mack Trucks, a subsidiary of Volvo Group, as well as a construction project management intern for Tesla and Curtiss-Wright as a mechanical engineering intern. He is a member of Undergraduate Consulting Club, Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, the Sports Analytics Club and Cru at Carnegie Mellon.
To be nominated for the William V. Campbell Trophy, student-athletes need to be submitted 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.
Named in honor of the late William V. Campbell, the former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal, The William V. Campbell Trophy has become the most prestigious and desirable "academic" award in college football. The trophy recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the country for his academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.
During the past 66 years, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards have truly become one of the most prestigious academic honors in all of college sports, distributing $12.6 million to 922 outstanding individuals since its inception.
Launched in 1959, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on both a player's academic and athletic accomplishments. The Campbell Trophy, first awarded in 1990, adds to the program's prestige. Past recipients include two Rhodes Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, two Heisman Trophy winners and eight first-round NFL draft picks.
The NFF will announce 12-15 finalists on October 23, 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 the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 10, 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 35th Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.