Vandals’ Jacob Sannon shines in the classroom as well as on the field

MOSCOW, Idaho – Through Moscow’s false spring in late January and early February and the recent return of winter, Jacob Sannon was a fixture on the University of Idaho football practice field.

Almost every morning, regardless of weather, he and a couple of recent Vandals teammates ran 40-yard dashes, sprinted around plastic cones and did standing long jumps.

On the field and in the UI weight room, they were working on specific skills that National Football League scouts want to see players demonstrate to ensure they are strong enough and athletic enough to perform in the NFL.

Unlike some teammates, including quarterback Matt Linehan, who headed to Florida to train in better conditions for pro days and individual team workouts, Sannon remained at the UI.

While he was certainly all-in on getting the most from himself as an athlete, for Sannon, the university was more than just athletic facilities. In addition to trying to continue his football career as a professional, he had business elsewhere on campus.

Sannon is in graduate school and this summer will complete the coursework for a master’s degree in accounting. If he gets an opportunity to meet with NFL coaches and team officials who are looking for attributes besides physical skill, such as intelligence, discipline and the experience to handle life challenges, Sannon can point to a credential few peers can match: He is a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America selection.

Sannon is the first Vandals player in any sport to be named to the College Sports Information Directors of America first team honoring scholar-athletes since 1973. Baseball player Willie Tomtell earned the award that year. The only other Idaho athlete picked to the Academic All-America first team was football player Bruce Langmeade in 1970.

Twenty-nine Vandals men and women have been named to Academic All-America teams, but Sannon is the first since 2014. T.J. Conley (2008), Rick Giampietri (2000) and Boyce Bailey (1983) were football players named to the second team.

Sannon maintained a 3.91 undergraduate grade-point average in accounting and has a perfect 4.0 in graduate school. On the field as a senior, he managed career highs of 59 catches for 608 yards as Idaho’s second-leading receiver in 2017. He made more than 10 catches in two games and totaled more than 100 receiving yards in two games. For his career, he made 125 catches, which ranks 13th among all Idaho pass catchers.

Sannon was nominated for the CoSIDA award by Idaho sports information director Michael Walsh.

“Every season in every sport, about two-thirds of the way through the season you compile a list. You go to the academic group and figure who qualifies,” Walsh said.

“A third-string long snapper is going to have less of a chance than a starting wide receiver.”

Sannon and linebacker Ed Hall, a junior, were Idaho’s Academic All-America nominees and both were named to the Academic All-District team. As members, they were eligible for the Academic All-America team.

“Now there’s tougher competition,” Walsh said.

He had an opportunity to bolster the candidacy of the Vandals players before sports information directors across the country voted.

“Obviously, (Sannon) was a go to option on offense,” Walsh said. “He was also a leader in the huddle, a leader in the classroom and a leader in the community.”

Sannon said teachers who were understanding of his schedule and fellow classmates who were willing to be study partners were important to helping him stay on top of the academic demands of college while he was making his way as a football player.

The time commitment to football was daunting in one respect, but it also provided a structure to his days that Sannon was able to work within as a scholar.

“Whether I was staying up after practice or waking up early to study for an exam,” he said of the structure.

He became a good student in middle school, when a succession of classroom motivational speakers inspired him to put more effort into school and turn his grades around.

Along the way, he also developed the confidence to seek out academic rigor rather than looking to avoid it.

“The thing I like about accounting is it is challenging,” he said. “I’m always learning.

“Knowing that not everyone has the discipline to do it also motivates me. I definitely do not want to take the easy way out.”

If no NFL team signs him this spring, Sannon has a job offer waiting for him with an accounting firm in Portland. In either case, he said he will look back on his football career at Idaho as valuable preparation.

As a junior, he got to experience the Vandals’ Famous Idaho Potato Bowl win over Colorado State. As a senior he played on a hard-luck team that went 4-8 but lost four one-possession games by a total of 17 points.

“It was always fun playing football,” Sannon said. “You go out every day and give all you have, and you bond with your teammates.”

For Sannon, the athletic side of the student-athlete equation empowered the student.

“(Vandals coach Paul Petrino) worked us hard and expected the best from everyone,” Sannon said. “I learned a lot being here. Football basically prepares you for anything you are going to face in life.”