Toth named semifinalist for 2016 Campbell Award

Kentucky center Jon Toth has been named a semifinalist for the prestigious 2016 Campbell Award, it was announced by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame. The award recognizes the nation’s best football scholar-athlete.

Toth, who hails from Indianapolis, is one of four returning starters on the Wildcats’ offensive line and is considered one of the top centers in college football for the second straight season. The 6-foot-5, 310-pound senior, has played in 40 career games with 39 consecutive starts. Last season, he helped UK’s four-man running back rotation collect 1,855 yards. This season the Cats’ running game is averaging nearly 200 yards per game, including 597 total rushing yards in its past two contests, victories over New Mexico State and South Carolina.

Off the field, Toth is a three-time SEC academic honor roll member and is on track to graduate in December with degrees in mechanical engineering and Spanish. He is a nominee for the National Football Foundation’s Scholar-Athlete Award and also is currently on the watch lists for the Rimington Trophy, given annually to the nation’s most outstanding center, the Outland Trophy, given to the nation’s best interior lineman and the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

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 $11.1 million.

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.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Nov. 1. Each finalist will travel to New York City for the 59th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 6 where one student-athlete will be named the winner of the 27th William V. Campbell trophy.

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