Luke Fortner is a Semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy

Luke Fortner is a bright guy. The Kentucky team captain could turn those smarts into some hardware. Fortner is a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, given each year by the National Football Foundation to the nation’s top football scholar-athlete.

Fortner has a resume worthy of this award. He has a 3.5 GPA and has earned his undergrad and masters in mechanical engineering. He’s now working on an MBA. He will probably get 17 more degrees before leaving Lexington.

In addition to his brains, there’s some brawn to go with his community service. A member of the Allstate Good Works team in 2020, he switched to center this fall and has promptly earned SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week honors twice in the first four weeks of the season.

As a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, he will have:

• An opportunity to receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship, which is awarded to each of the 12-to-14 finalists for the Campbell Trophy.
• An opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for the NFF Annual Awards Dinner, where each finalist will accept their scholarship and meet the 32 College Football Hall of Famers being inducted this year, including Tony Romo, Carson Palmer, Bob Stoops, Eric Dickerson and the countless other legends who will be attending the event.
• An opportunity to be the winner of the coveted 24-pound bronze Campbell Trophy, which comes with a $25,000 post-graduate scholarship and an appearance on the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on ESPN.
• An opportunity to win a $5,000 donation from Fidelity Investments to support the school’s academic services department.

Past winners of the Campbell Trophy include Peyton Manning (Tennessee), Chad Pennington (Marshall), Tim Tebow (Florida), Justin Herbert (Oregon) and last year’s recipient Brady White from Memphis.