Alumni Update - Nolan Nearhoff (Robert Morris)

Robert Morris senior defensive lineman Nolan Nearhoof was named the Northeast Conference Defensive Player of the Year and also was a first-team All-NEC selection for a third striaght seasons.

Nearhoof, the Mars High School graduate, saved his best for last as the senior set career highs in a number of key categories while consistently causing havoc in opponents’ backfields. He posted a career-best 76 tackles in 2012, second on the team, while starting all 11 games at defensive end.

However, he really made his mark by tackling opponents behind the line of scrimmage as he tallied a career-high 13 tackles for loss, a mark which included 10.5 sacks. In doing so, he became just the third Colonial to post a double-digit sack total in a single season.

Nearhoof not only leads the NEC in sacks per game, but he currently ranks sixth in the Football Championship Subdivision in that category. Nearhoof also added 11 quarterback hurries and two pass breakups this year.

He posted eight tackles, including five solo stops, and a sack against eventual NEC champion Wagner and registered 11 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss in a win over local rival Duquesne.

Nearhoof’s final season capped off an incredible career that saw him rewrite the Robert Morris and Northeast Conference record books. He finished his four years and 40 career games with 26.5 sacks, a figure that not only blew past the previous top mark at RMU, but was also good enough to move him to the top spot in the career annals of the NEC.

He notched 36 career tackles for loss, a mark that ranks among the top five all-time at RMU, while posting 213 overall tackles and three fumble recoveries in his illustrious career.

This prestigious honor is the latest in a long line for Nearhoof, who has garnered a litany of awards for his combined academic and athletic achievement.

He is a two-time Academic All-American and two-time NEC Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionally, Nearhoof was recently selected as one of 15 National Football Foundation (NFF) National Scholar-Athletes, and the only one from the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). As a result, he was granted an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship and is a finalist for the 2012 William V. Campbell Trophy that recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation.

Nearhoof becomes the 11th Colonial to earn at least three All-NEC awards in a career.

(photo courtesy of Robert Morris University)