Walls Tabbed as Finalist for STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award
12/6/2017 2:12:00 PM | Football
Senior safety Marlon Walls named a finalist for the FCS scholar-athlete of the year award for second consecutive season
STATS FCS Release
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – For the second time in as many years, Stephen F. Austin football senior safety Marlon Walls has been selected as the Southland Conference's pick as a finalist for the 2017 STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award. Given annually to the absolute best FCS scholar-athlete in the nation, one player from each of the 13 FCS conferences is selected as a finalist for the STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award. Walls was chosen as the Southland's representative in 2016 as well.
Named after the wife of legendary Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson, the third annual award is presented to an FCS student-athlete who excels not only in the classroom, but in the community and beyond.
STATS will announce the winner on Monday, Dec. 11 and honor him at the FCS Awards Banquet and Presentation Friday, Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas – on the eve of the FCS national championship game.
Most recently, Walls was in New York City for the 2017 National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame Annual Awards Dinner Tuesday night as SFA's first William V. Campbell Trophy® finalist and NFF National Scholar-Athlete. His accomplishments were highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports as the prestigious Campbell Trophy® is regarded as the highest scholar-athlete honor in all of college football and the academic equivalent to the Heisman Trophy.
With SFA already having a Walter Payton Award winner in former quarterback Jeremy Moses (2010), the Lumberjacks became just the sixth football program in the nation to have both a Walter Payton Award winner and a NFF National Scholar-Athlete. Of those, only five schools have had both a Walter Payton Award winner and a Campbell Trophy® finalist since the award's inception in 1990.
Owning an unblemished 4.0 grade point average, Walls is one of just two Doris Robinson Award finalist with a perfect GPA.
A native of Pearland, Texas (Pearland H.S.), Walls is a three-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District First Team selection. Majoring in engineering physics and minoring in mathematics, Walls became the first SFA football player to claim CoSIDA Academic All-America® First Team honors in 2016 and is the reigning Southland Conference Football Student-Athlete of the Year. He will be graduating later this month after only three and a half years of study at SFA. This past summer, Walls completed an internship at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. While there, he joined other students from institutions such as MIT, Stanford and Yale to assist with the Europa Propulsion Module, a NASA space probe joint project. Upon graduating, Walls plans to return to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to gain more work experience before pursuing a graduate degree in mechanical engineering next fall.
A nominee for both the 2016 and 2017 Allstate/American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team, Walls was named to the 2016 FCS Athletic Directors Association (ADA) Academic All-Star Team. He has been placed on the Southland's All-Academic Team for the past two seasons and has been a member of the Southland fall commissioner's honor roll each year since his freshman campaign in 2014. Named to the SFA President's List every semester of his career, Walls was the recipient of the SFA physics department's Brian Patrick Hanson Memorial Scholarship last year and claimed the Murray Shaw Award for owning the highest GPA of any Lumberjack football player.
On the gridiron, Walls recorded 60 tackles, including 31 solo stops and two tackles for loss, while playing in all 11 games and making 10 starts this season. He registered a career-high 11 total tackles versus 17th-ranked Nicholls on Nov. 11 and posted nine tackles in two other outings. Walls also claimed three pass breakups, a quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery throughout the year.
Outside of football and academics Walls has been active in the community, both in Nacogdoches and Houston, during his time as a student-athlete. Among the large number of community service projects he has participated in are serving as a nutrition and life skills advocate, a student instructor, a math and science tutor and lending his time on Thanksgiving Day, passing out meals to needy citizens. Walls also speaks at area elementary schools and assists with the football team's "Read to Succeed" program.
-SFA-
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – For the second time in as many years, Stephen F. Austin football senior safety Marlon Walls has been selected as the Southland Conference's pick as a finalist for the 2017 STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award. Given annually to the absolute best FCS scholar-athlete in the nation, one player from each of the 13 FCS conferences is selected as a finalist for the STATS FCS Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award. Walls was chosen as the Southland's representative in 2016 as well.
Named after the wife of legendary Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson, the third annual award is presented to an FCS student-athlete who excels not only in the classroom, but in the community and beyond.
STATS will announce the winner on Monday, Dec. 11 and honor him at the FCS Awards Banquet and Presentation Friday, Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas – on the eve of the FCS national championship game.
Most recently, Walls was in New York City for the 2017 National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame Annual Awards Dinner Tuesday night as SFA's first William V. Campbell Trophy® finalist and NFF National Scholar-Athlete. His accomplishments were highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports as the prestigious Campbell Trophy® is regarded as the highest scholar-athlete honor in all of college football and the academic equivalent to the Heisman Trophy.
With SFA already having a Walter Payton Award winner in former quarterback Jeremy Moses (2010), the Lumberjacks became just the sixth football program in the nation to have both a Walter Payton Award winner and a NFF National Scholar-Athlete. Of those, only five schools have had both a Walter Payton Award winner and a Campbell Trophy® finalist since the award's inception in 1990.
Owning an unblemished 4.0 grade point average, Walls is one of just two Doris Robinson Award finalist with a perfect GPA.
A native of Pearland, Texas (Pearland H.S.), Walls is a three-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District First Team selection. Majoring in engineering physics and minoring in mathematics, Walls became the first SFA football player to claim CoSIDA Academic All-America® First Team honors in 2016 and is the reigning Southland Conference Football Student-Athlete of the Year. He will be graduating later this month after only three and a half years of study at SFA. This past summer, Walls completed an internship at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. While there, he joined other students from institutions such as MIT, Stanford and Yale to assist with the Europa Propulsion Module, a NASA space probe joint project. Upon graduating, Walls plans to return to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to gain more work experience before pursuing a graduate degree in mechanical engineering next fall.
A nominee for both the 2016 and 2017 Allstate/American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team, Walls was named to the 2016 FCS Athletic Directors Association (ADA) Academic All-Star Team. He has been placed on the Southland's All-Academic Team for the past two seasons and has been a member of the Southland fall commissioner's honor roll each year since his freshman campaign in 2014. Named to the SFA President's List every semester of his career, Walls was the recipient of the SFA physics department's Brian Patrick Hanson Memorial Scholarship last year and claimed the Murray Shaw Award for owning the highest GPA of any Lumberjack football player.
On the gridiron, Walls recorded 60 tackles, including 31 solo stops and two tackles for loss, while playing in all 11 games and making 10 starts this season. He registered a career-high 11 total tackles versus 17th-ranked Nicholls on Nov. 11 and posted nine tackles in two other outings. Walls also claimed three pass breakups, a quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery throughout the year.
Outside of football and academics Walls has been active in the community, both in Nacogdoches and Houston, during his time as a student-athlete. Among the large number of community service projects he has participated in are serving as a nutrition and life skills advocate, a student instructor, a math and science tutor and lending his time on Thanksgiving Day, passing out meals to needy citizens. Walls also speaks at area elementary schools and assists with the football team's "Read to Succeed" program.
-SFA-
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