Matt Stinchcomb
University of Georgia
Offensive Tackle, 1995-98

• Twice earned First Team All-America accolades, including consensus honors in 1998.
• Becomes third Campbell Trophy^® recipient to enter the Hall.
• Claimed 1998 Jacobs Blocking Trophy as SEC's best blocker and was twice named first team all-conference.
• Played for College Football Hall of Fame coach Jim Donnan.
• Becomes the 14th Bulldog player to enter the Hall.

He may be as visible now as he was during his playing days, which is saying a lot when you were a two-time All-American in college and a first-round NFL draft pick who played in the Super Bowl.

But Matt Stinchcomb has found plenty of ways to keep busy after his time on the gridiron, even if that means he hasn't strayed too far away from the field. He is the 14th former Georgia player to make the College Football Hall of Fame, and his face — and voice — can be heard in different Southern stadiums each Saturday as part of his game analyst role with the SEC Network, his 10th season working with ESPN.

"It's a blast, it really is, getting to be in the stadiums," Stinchcomb said. "And the truth is, you're able to appreciate it I think more — certainly differently — than as a player. As a player, it's a business trip, and what you see is the locker room and a field and a bus, and that's it. And now I get to see it as a neat experience of an entire game.

"I get to see a little bit of the fan experience, I get to see the facility at-large and not just the narrowly-contained orchestrated experience that being a player kind of was, so it's a totally different experience. The scope of it is entirely different, too — commenting on the game in its entirety, on the venue itself, on the crowd noise, on the fan experience. When you're playing, for me it was just, 'block the defensive end.' "

Stinchcomb blocked better than anyone when he played for the Bulldogs, winning the Jacobs Blocking Trophy in 1998, one year after anchoring an offensive line that paved the way for one of the best offenses in school history (6.3 yards per play). And his efforts led Georgia to a 19-5 record during his junior and senior campaigns with respective victories in the Outback and Peach Bowls.  Moreover, he won the NFF's William V. Campbell Trophy®, the most prestigious academic honor the game has to offer.

He hailed from Atlanta and resides in the area today, serving as a partner with the insurance brokerage firm Seacrest Partners during the week days. Along with his brother Jon and David Greene — former UGA players and NFF National Scholar-Athletes themselves — Stinchcomb hosts "Countdown to Kickoff," a children's charity event, every July back in Athens.

Stinchcomb made the AFCA Good Works team twice while at Georgia, and he was recognized for his off-the-field exploits with the Woody Hayes National Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 1998.

His latest honor, the Hall induction, brought about a wave of memories from all those who had helped Stinchcomb reach this point — his mom, his dad, his stepdad and his first high school coach, the late Chuck Mize, who was tragically murdered during Stinchcomb's sophomore year but believed in the teenager more than he even believed in himself at the time.

"They were as involved as you could be without ever feeling or expecting anything other than their kid enjoying playing sports," he said of his parents. "I never felt any sense of them being overbearing or that there was any delusions of grandeur out of them. They always acted like they were really the grandparents — they were just happy that they you were out there and that they got to watch you."

Stinchcomb will be honored this Saturday, Nov. 10, with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments, during Georgia's game against Auburn. He will officially be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame during the 61st NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 4 in New York City.