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Tulane Kicker Jackson Courville up for Wuerffel Trophy Award
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- Tulane Kicker Jackson Courville up for Wuerffel Trophy Award
(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
The Tulane Green Wave have two solid kickers in Cooper Helmke and Jackson Courville , though Courville has taken over a bit as Helmke hadn't kicked until Day 6 of training camp.
The transfer from the Ohio State Buckeyes was recently nominated to the 2026 Allstate Wuerffel Trophy Watch List by the Wuerffel Foundation.
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Courville is up for an award that recognizes college football players in FBS with strong achievements in the community, academically, and on the football field.
It's seen as the premier award in the sport for exemplary community service and is named in honor of 1996 Heisman Trophy winner and University of Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel. The award was established in 2005 by the All Sports Association.
Wuerffel has a storied list of community outreach and service acts that began with him assuming the role Desire Street Ministries to lead their community outreach activities after Hurricane Katrina.
He became presidential appointee to the White House Council for Service and Civic Participation and served in that role from 2006 to 2008.
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He was a member of the Board of Directors for Professional Athletes Outreach and also a national spokesman for Caps Kids.
Courville is one of just 113 players across FBS to be nominated this season in the award's 21st year.
He begins his first year with the Green Wave after going 4-for-4 in his extra points attempts for the Buckeyes last season. He also went 4-for-4 for touchbacks on his kickoff attempts.
Prior to that, he was actually with the Ball State Cardinals at the same time as one of the current Tulane competing quarterbacks, Kadin Semonza.
Courville went 26-for-34 on his field goals for the Cardinals with a long of 52 yards. He was also 54-of-56 on his extra point attempts.
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Courville exemplified several of the qualities that the Wuerffel award is looking for in his time at Ball State, becoming a College Sports Communicators Academic All-America nominee and Academic All-MAC in 2024.
He will look to try to take over the starting role after kicker Patrick Durkin followed former coach Jon Sumrall to the Florida Gators .
Durkin played an important role in several games for the Green Wave last season when they needed a boost on offense. He went 25-for-28 on field goals and 41-for-42 on extra points with a career long of 52 yards and four going for 50+ yards.
The Tulane offense will look to be explosive under new head coach Will Hall and offensive coordinator Russ Callaway, but kickers can be a secret weapon in winning college football games, and Courville will look to achieve that alongside his efforts off the field.
