Oklahoma K Zach Schmit Named Campbell Trophy Semifinalist

The Sooners redshirt senior is a semifinalist for the trophy awarded to the best scholar-athlete in college football.

Nov 18, 2023; Provo, Utah, USA; Oklahoma Sooners place kicker Zach Schmit (34) kicks a field goal against the Brigham Young Cougars in the second quarter at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

From OU Relations

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma redshirt senior kicker Zach Schmit has been named a semifinalist for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, the National Football Foundation announced Wednesday.

The Campbell Trophy, in its 35th year, is awarded to the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

Schmit received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in May and is pursuing a master’s in business administration. He has maintained a 3.93 GPA throughout his college career.

Schmit was a member of the 2024 NFF and College Football Hall of Fame Hampshire Honor Society, a recipient of the 2024 Dr. Gerald Lage Big 12 Academic Achievement Award and a recipient of OU’s Outstanding Scholar Athlete of the Year Award in 2023. He is a two-time College Sports Communications Academic All-District Football Team selection (2022 and ’23), a three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection (2021, ’22 and ’23) and was named to the Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team in 2020. He has earned Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll distinction in all eight of his completed semesters, was named to the OU President’s Honor Roll (4.0 semester GPA) for six semesters and was on the OU Dean’s Honor Roll (3.5+ semester GPA) for his other two semesters.

The Oklahoma City product was a recipient of the OU football program’s Above the Standard award in 2023 for high academic achievement and was selected as one of the team’s Accountability Leaders for the spring 2024 semester. Schmit was also named Oklahoma’s Special Teams Player of the Year in 2022 and served as a game captain for OU’s contest at Cincinnati in 2023 and for the Houston game this season.

For the last two years, Schmit has participated in the Art with a Heart program, helping raise awareness for and celebrating the artwork of OU Children's Hospital. In January, he took part in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service project, packing more than 40,000 meals to be sent to people in need in Haiti, and during the OU football team’s 2023 open week, he and his teammates worked with 1-1-1 Project Bunk Bed to build more than 325 beds that were set to be distributed to children involved in child welfare throughout the state of Oklahoma. During OU's 2022 open week, he delivered meals to more than 50 local residents through Meals on Wheels and has served as a voluntary reader in pre-K classrooms at Christ the King Catholic School.

Schmit is a member of the American Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Gallogly College Engineering Scholar and Chemical Engineering Program Excellence Scholar. Additionally, he worked an internship in his field of undergraduate study at Valero Energy this summer, where he helped prepare a patent prior to filing and created an equation for the company's refinery database to calculate the energy required to strip hydrogen fluoride from gasoline. He also completed an internship in summer 2023 with the Oklahoma City District Attorney's office in preparation for his plans to attend law school. Since 2020, he has served as an assistant at Kohl's Kicking Camps, mentoring high school kickers and logging performance and testing records.

Schmit served as OU’s primary placekicker for the 2022 and ’23 seasons and made 28 of his 40 career field goal attempts (70.0%) and all 124 of his PAT tries. His streak of 124 consecutive made PATs is fourth-longest in program history. This season, he has served as the team’s kickoff specialist.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Oct. 23, and each of them will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2024 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments. The finalists will travel to the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 10. During the event, one member of the class will be declared the winner of the 35th Campbell Trophy® and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.

Nominated by their schools, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of playing 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.

Former Sooner center Ty Darlington was awarded the Campbell Trophy in 2015, and former center Gabe Ikard and former defensive back Pat Fields were finalists in 2013 and 2021, respectively.