Ravens' Stochlin Wins Rimington Trophy
NEW YORK, N.Y. – A day after learning that he was named a 2014 AFCA-NAIA All-American, Benedictine OL David Stochlin earned another top national honor on Wednesday. Stochlin was named the 2014 NAIA Rimington Award recipient, awarded to the top center at the NAIA level.
The Rimington Trophy is presented annually to the Most Outstanding Center in College Football with one honor awarded at each level. Since its inception, the Rimington Trophy has raised over $2.5 million for the cystic fibrosis community. The fifteen-year old award is overseen by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and has raised over $100 million for CF Research.
Stochlin became the 68th NAIA All-America selection in program history and becomes the second Raven to be honored as a Rimington Award Recipient. Former Raven Truman Ashby was named the 2007 recipient of the NAIA's Rimington Trophy.
He anchored an offensively line that averaged 425.3 total yards per game this season while rushing for 219 yards per game.
Dave Rimington, the award's namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy's only double winner as the nation's finest college interior lineman.
Three years after the Boomer Esiason Foundation launched the Rimington Trophy for the outstanding NCAA Division I-A center, it expanded that honor to include Divisions I-AA, II, III, and the NAIA. In 2008, Division I-A was renamed "Football Bowl Subdivision" (FBS), and Division I-AA was renamed "Football Championship Subdivision" (FCS).
Recipients are selected by Jason Dannelly, founder and editor of Victory Sports Network, a leading authority on small college football. Dannelly works with a committee of experts across all smaller divisions to select the winners of the Rimington Award.
The annual Rimington Trophy Presentation will be held January 17, 2015, at the Rococo Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska.