Morgantown, W.Va. – Senior cornerback Terrell Chestnut was named one of 80 FBS players across the nation for the Wuerffel Trophy, today, as announced by its national selection committee.

 

The Wuerffel Trophy, known as “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service,” is presented annually by the All Sports Association in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  Named after 1996 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel from the University of Florida, the Wuerffel Trophy is awarded to the FBS player that best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.

 

Chestnut played in 12 games in 2014, finishing with 35 tackles, including 25 solo stops. He tied for the team lead with seven pass breakups, forced a fumble, recovered it and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown against TCU and finished with an interception. He had season best performances at Maryland and against Oklahoma, finishing with six tackles in each game.

 

Chestnut is majoring in sociology and anthropology and has earned spots on the Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll and the Big 12 Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll during his career. He is very active in the community as well, speaking at area youth camps, visiting WVU Children’s Hospital, participating in “Make A Wish” Foundation, taking part in the “Once a Mountaineer Program” – talking to elementary and middle school children – create awareness for youth fitness, helped build a church playground at a local church, served as a captain and participated at Webster County Field Day, created awareness for asthma, taking part in “Can’t Catch Your Breathe” – speaking at a camp for kids who have asthma – (talking with campers from the perspective of someone who has asthma), spoke at high schools on importance of education and to stay away from drugs and alcohol and traveled with the team to the southern part of West Virginia to help refurbish a community center and athletic fields.

 

Voting for the Wuerffel Trophy is performed by a National Selection Committee that includes college football television and print media, industry notables, former head coaches and prior Wuerffel Trophy recipients.  
  
Nominations for the Wuerffel Trophy are made by the respective universities’ Sports Information departments and will close on October 15.  A current list of nominees can be found at www.wuerffeltrophy.org.  Semifinalists for the award will be announced on Nov. 3 and finalists will be announced on November 24.  Formal announcement of the winner will be on December 8 at the National Football Foundation’s press conference in New York City.
 
The presentation of the 2015 Wuerffel Trophy will occur at the 47^th Annual All Sports Association Awards Banquet on February 12, 2016 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
 
Past winners of the Wuerffel Trophy are:  Rudy Niswanger (LSU-2005), Joel Penton (Ohio State-2006), Paul Smith (Tulsa-2007), Tim Tebow (Florida-2008), Tim Hiller (W. Michigan-2009), Sam Acho (Texas-2010), Barrett Jones (Alabama-2011), Matt Barkley (USC-2012), Gabe Ikard (Oklahoma-2013) and Deterrian Shackelford (Ole Miss-2014).