Irving, Texas----- San Jose State University offensive tackle Jack Snyder, a three-year starter, is one of 199 semifinalists for the 2020 William V. Campbell Trophy awarded by the National Football Foundation to the nation's top scholar-athlete.
Dubbed as the "Academic Heisman," the Campbell Trophy was first awarded in 1990 and is named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, a Columbia University team captain and All-Ivy League football player who was the Chief Executive Officer and chairman of Intuit, Inc. A Silicon Valley icon, Campbell was known as the "Coach of Silicon Valley" for mentoring area giants including Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Dick Costolo at Twitter, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and many others.
Snyder met the nominating criteria of having senior class standing athletically, an undergraduate grade-point average of at least 3.20 on a 4.00 scale, first-string status on a team, and demonstrating strong leadership and citizenship.
He is a first-year graduate student pursuing a master's degree in urban planning. A three-time Academic All-Mountain West and two-time Mountain West Scholar-Athlete, he majored in business administration as an undergraduate. Snyder was named a San Jose State University Dean's Scholar in 2018.
On the field, the fixture in the Spartans offensive line since 2017 capable of playing either right or left tackle. He received honorable mention All-Mountain West honors in 2019. San Jose State, fourth nationally in passing offense, yielded only 14 quarterback sacks and provided pass protection for 498 attempts.
During his junior season, Snyder became the first San Jose State offensive lineman since 1992 to score a touchdown in a game when he caught a lateral pass and ran 4 yards in the November 23, 2019 contest at UNLV.
In the last year, he utilized his time management skills to serve an internship with a local property management company during the 2019 football season and a second internship in spring 2020 with a commercial property and casualty insurance company in San Jose.
Snyder is a two-time participant in the National Football Foundation's Scholar-Athlete awards program. As a senior at Marin Catholic High in Kentfield, Calif., in 2015, he represented Marin County, north of San Francisco, as one of 24 scholar-athlete honorees at the Foundation's Northern California chapter's annual awards banquet.
From the semifinalists representing NCAA and NAIA football-playing institutions, 12 to 14 finalists will be named in November. The finalists will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship and be named to the 2020 National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Class presented by Fidelity Investments. Later in the year, one of the finalists will be the winner of the Campbell Trophy presented by Mazda and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.
