Ohio State senior punter Drue Chrisman has put together quite a memorable career as a Buckeye. Thursday, he was named a semifinalist for one of the most prestigious awards in college football.
You can find the full release from Ohio State below.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Whether it’s flipping field position with his punts or flipping bottles for charity away from football, Drue Chrisman’s resume of accomplishments at Ohio State is extensive. On Thursday, he added another honor to that list: he was named one of 199 semifinalists for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, which is awarded to the outstanding senior scholar-athlete by the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame.
The winner is chosen in December from a list of 12-15 scholar-athletes selected by the NFF Awards Committee, each of whom will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. Last year, SAF Jordan Fuller, now a member of the Los Angeles Rams, was a finalist.
Chrisman, from Lawrenceburg, Ind. and LaSalle High School in Cincinnati, will be vying to become Ohio State’s 23rd NFF National Scholar-Athlete and its third winner of the Campbell Trophy, following Bobby Hoying (1995) and Craig Krenzel (2003).
The criteria for the award is rigorous. It includes a minimum grade-point average of 3.20 and combines notable accomplishments on the field with academic success and exemplary examples of off-the-field leadership and citizenship. By any measure, Chrisman is superb in all those categories:
- He carries a 3.334 grade-point average and graduated last December with his degree in consumer and family financial services. Chrisman is currently pursuing a second undergraduate degree in human development and family science.
- Four times Chrisman has been an OSU Scholar-Athlete and three-times he’s earned Academic All-Big Ten honors.
- Chrisman, whose bottle-flipping exploits had been well documented prior to 2020, took his talents to a new level when he raised more than $15,000 for the World Wildlife Fund’s Australia brushfire relief efforts during a 24-hour flipping marathon.
- In January, he flipped 16-ounce water bottles for 24 hours as a live stream audience on YouTube watched – and donated. He estimates that he flipped at least 30,000 bottles to get to his total of 22,067 successful flips.
While that was his most publicized charitable endeavor, it was far from his first. When he first arrived on campus in 2016, Chrisman grew his hair out for a full year and donated it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths in honor of his grandmother, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
He’s been a regular participant in trips with his teammates to read at Columbus-area elementary schools in partnership with the 2nd and 7 Foundation, which promotes literacy by providing free books and positive role models for children in need.
On the field, Chrisman has twice been a Ray Guy Award semifinalist and currently ranks fourth in Ohio State history in career punting average (43.9 yards/punt) and third in punts placed inside the 20 yard line (72). He was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection in 2019 and a third-team pick in 2018.
Ohio State’s 22 NFF National Scholar-Athletes
2020 – Jordan Fuller
2015 – Jacoby Boren
2008 – Brian Robiskie
2003 – Craig Krenzel
1999 – Ahmed Plummer
1996 – Greg Bellisari
1995 – Bobby Hoying
1994 – Joey Galloway
1992 – Greg Smith
1990 – Greg Frey
1989 – Joe Staysniak
1985 – Mike Lanese
1984 – Dave Crecelius
1983 – John Frank
1982 – Joe Smith
1979 – Jim Laughlin
1975 – Brian Baschnagel
1973 – Randy Gradishar
1970 – Rex Kern
1968 – David Foley
1965 – Willard Sander
1964 – Arnold Chonko
