By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For the second season in a row, Tennessee Tech senior linebacker Seth Carlisle finds himself in the running for one of the highest student-athlete honors for the Football Championship Subdivision as he was named Wednesday as one of 15 finalists for the FedEx Ground Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award.
Carlisle, nominated by the Ohio Valley Conference as its nominee, now waits until the announcement of the winner on December 12. The winner will be recognized at the FCS National Awards banquet on Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas – the night before the FCS Playoff championship game.
The award is named after the late school teacher and wife of legendary Grambling State football coach Edie Robinson. It honors a student-athlete who not only excelled on the field, but also in the classroom, the community and beyond.
It's another honor for the Red Boiling Springs native who was named to this season's All-Ohio Valley Conference second-team defense roster on Tuesday. Carlisle was also a semifinalist this fall for the National Football Foundation's William V, Campbell Trophy, the third since 2017 with Dontez Byrd and Tavin Kilpatrick.
Carlisle, already working toward his master's degree in business administration, graduated from Tech last December with a 3.66 GPA in Biology Health Sciences with an emphasis in pre-dentistry. Among his academic honors, Carlisle was a regular member of the Dean's List, Athletic Director's Honor Roll and Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll.
He was Tech's recipient of the National Football Foundation Middle Tennessee chapter's Charles W. Hawkins III University Scholar-Athlete Award and was one of the recipients of the OVC's Scholar-Athlete Award. Carlisle earned the Headrick Pre-Health Sciences Scholarship, the Jerry D. Cantrell Endowment Scholarship and the Golden Opportunity Scholarship.
He was also a 2021 member of the Football Championship Subdivision Athletic Directors Association's Academic All-Star Team.
On the field, Carlisle was a STATS Perform FCS National Player of the Week honorable mention in the Spring 2021 campaign, twice-named OVC Defensive Player of the Week and was the Spring 2021 winner of Tech's prestigious Robert Hill Johnson Award.
A member of Tech Football's Leadership Group, Carlisle also had the opportunity to shape the game itself as he served on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee Student-Athlete Connection Group. Carlisle has also been a part of the Tech and OVC Student-Athlete Advisory Committees and has served countless hours of community service with the organizations and the football team.
Carlisle had another impressive season in 2022 as he led the Golden Eagles in tackles with 98 stops. He had three tackles-for-loss, five pass breakups and two QB hurries. Carlisle had five games this season with double-digit tackles, including a career-high 16 stops against Kennesaw State, while collecting 13 against Tennessee State, and 11 each against Samford, Lindenwood and North Carolina Central.
He ended his career with 330 total tackles, falling just five short of tying Norman Drake (1988-91) for 10th all-time in program history.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
