Notre Dame S Drue Tranquill named first-team Academic All-American

Drue Tranquill is successful.

He's a football player, too.

On Thursday, Notre Dame's junior strong safety was named a first-team Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the first time an Irish player has accomplished the feat since Corey Robinson was named a first-team Academic All-American in 2014.

Enrolled in the College of Engineering as a mechanical engineering major, Tranquill has a 3.74 grade-point average and has been on the Dean's List two of four semesters at Notre Dame. He was named a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree in 2015.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior from Fort Wayne serves as a mentor for the Core Leadership Team for Lifeworks Ministry, is a member of Notre Dame Christian Athletes, Team Fellowship and is an athlete ambassador for Dream Teams. He is a also member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and Rosenthal Leadership Academy.

This season, Tranquill — who has missed parts of two seasons with torn ACLs — launched the "5th Quarter" post-game event, in which he shares his story of perseverance with the South Bend community following home games at the Granger Oasis Church.

On the field, Tranquill started all 12 games at strong safety this season, led the team with 52 solo tackles and finished second with 79 total tackles. He added two tackles for loss and an interception.

Tranquill will return for his final season of eligibility in 2017.