NFF National Scholar-Athletes
Mechanical Engineering – 3.73 GPA
Head Coach: Brian Kelly | Athletics Director: Jack Swarbrick
Faculty Athletics Representative: Patricia Bellia
A two-year team captain on the No. 3-ranked team in the FBS, Drue Tranquill has thrived both on and off the field in his time at Notre Dame. The Fort Wayne, Indiana, native becomes the 18th NFF National Scholar-Athlete in Notre Dame’s history.
Tranquill graduated in May 2018 with an impressive 3.73 GPA in mechanical engineering. A 2016 First Team Academic All-American, Tranquill was named a First Team Academic All-District selection four times. A two-time recipient of Notre Dame’s Rockne Student-Athlete Award, he is a five-time member of the Dean’s List, and he has been inducted into the Pi Tau Sigma engineering honorary.
Tied for second on the Fighting Irish with 66 tackles, Tranquill also has nine tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 2018. The standout linebacker has been a key part of Notre Dame’s perfect 11-0 start this season and a leader on a defense that is holding opponents to just 17.3 points per game.
Tranquill was named Notre Dame’s 2014 Defensive Newcomer of the Year following a season where he tallied 33 tackles and one interception and helped Notre Dame to a Music City Bowl victory. The four-year letterwinner was medically redshirted after suffering a torn ACL in 2015 before rebounding in 2016 to finish second on the team with 79 tackles. Tranquill transitioned from safety to linebacker in 2017, and he was third in tackles on a Notre Dame team that won the 2017 Citrus Bowl and finished No. 11 in the polls. Boasting an impressive 272 career tackles, Tranquill was named a finalist for the 2017 Pop Warner Award.
A two-time Wuerffel Trophy finalist, Tranquill launched the “5th Quarter” postgame event in 2016, giving him the opportunity to share his story of perseverance with the South Bend Community. Tranquill has participated in three mission trips to the Dominican Republic, and he is an Athlete Ambassador for Dream Teams, a mentoring program in South Bend elementary schools. He serves as a football representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and the Rosenthal Leadership Academy.
