Release 

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John's University senior quarterback Jackson Erdmann (Rosemount, Minn.) was named one of the five finalists for the 2019 Gagliardi Trophy, which is awarded to the most outstanding football player in NCAA Division III by Jostens and the Saint John's J-Club. The finalists were revealed by D3football.com during a live streaming broadcast on Thursday, Dec. 12.

The other four finalists are North Central (Ill.) senior quarterback Broc Rutter, Birmingham-Southern (Ala.) junior running back Robert Shufford, Linfield (Ore.) junior quarterback Wyatt Smith and Aurora (Ill.) junior quarterback Gavin Zimbelman. 

The winner of the 2019 Gagliardi Trophy will be announced by D3football.com on Friday, Dec. 20, prior to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. The recipient's university will host an award presentation at a later date. Details will be provided at the time of the announcement.

Nominations were submitted by colleges across the country, and the semifinalists were selected by the J-Club Board of Directors. The Gagliardi Trophy national-selection committee is comprised of 16 Division III coaches (four from each NCAA region), four Division III administrators (one from each region), eight regional notable voters (two from each region), and eight national voters with Division III backgrounds. 

Fans also voted online, and their tally, totaling 15,969 votes, represented the 41st committee member. Wisconsin-La Crosse senior wide receiver Cole Spieker received the highest number of online fan votes with 2,426. Erdmann finished second with 2,047.

The 2018 Gagliardi Trophy recipient, Erdmann was a consensus (AP, AFCA, D3football.com) All-American, the D3football.com National Offensive Player of the Year and MIAC Most Valuable Player last fall. 

This season, Erdmann earned his second consecutive D3football.com West Region Offensive Player of the Year honor and third All-MIAC first-team distinction as he led SJU (12-1, 7-1 MIAC) to a share of its MIAC-record 34th conference title and 30th postseason appearance (26th in Division III). 

He currently leads Division III in passing yards (4,698), passing yards per game (361.4) and total offense (367.1 ypg.), is third in passing touchdowns (46), fourth in both pass-efficiency rating (185.1) yards per pass attempt (10.75), and seventh in yards per completion (16.60). 

Erdmann is 370 passing yards shy of the NCAA Division III single-season record of 5,068 set by Joe Callahan of Wesley (Del.) in 2015.

He owns MIAC and SJU records for passing touchdowns (138) and passing yards (11,297), as well as the school record for season pass attempts (439), season pass completions (284), career touchdowns responsible for (142), game passing yards (496), touchdown passes in a game (7), touchdown passes in a season (47), season passing yards (4,698), yards of total offense in a game (563), yards of total offense in a season (4,772), yards of total offense in a career (11,648), 300-yard passing games in a season (10) and 300-yard passing games in a career (14). Erdmann is second in school history in career pass attempts (1,138), career pass completions (725) and wins as a starting quarterback (37).

A global business leadership major with a 3.27 GPA, Erdmann earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award, sponsored by the Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, to teach English in Malaysia, but he declined it, pending his possible professional football endeavors in 2020.

A member of the 2018 Allstate American Football Coaches' Association (AFCA) Good Works Team, Erdmann is no stranger to community service. He currently teaches and tutors advanced math students ranging from grades 5-8 at All Saints Academy in nearby St. Joseph, Minn., for an hour each weekday. Erdmann was one of three student-athletes (the lone student-athlete from Division III) on the NCAA working group appointed by the NCAA president and Board of Governors that examined issues highlighted in recently passed federal and state legislation related to student-athlete name, image and likeness. Erdmann attended meetings June 24-25 in Dallas and continued to participate via conference call).

He taught English as a Secondary Language (ESL) classes one night a week last fall and has participated in SJU's Kids Fighting Hunger meal-packing event each of the last four years. Erdmann helped the SJU football team raise money for Tackle Cancer and the "Up Till Dawn" campaign, collecting donations for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital since 2016. 

Erdmann went on an 18-day service trip to Thailand in January 2018, where he worked with various organizations that fight child sex trafficking. He spent his spring break in 2017 working at the Breaking Free House in the Twin Cities, which is a safe place for victims of sex trafficking and prostitution to recover from their experiences.

No. 8 SJU (12-1 overall) travels to face No. 7 Wisconsin-Whitewater (12-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, in the NCAA semifinals. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.