Eli Pancol of Duke Named 2024 Brian Piccolo Award Recipient and Wake Forest’s Taylor Morin to Receive ACC’s 2024 Jim Tatum Award.
Duke graduate student wide receiver Eli Pancol has been named the recipient of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 2024 Brian Piccolo Award, the league announced on Monday.
The Piccolo Award has been given annually since 1970 in memory of the late Brian Piccolo to the “most courageous” football player in the ACC. As a standout running back at Wake Forest, Piccolo was the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1965 and played for the Chicago Bears before his career was cut short when he was diagnosed with cancer. His courageous fight against the disease was an inspiration to the Bears and the entire football community.
In October of 2022, Pancol suffered a broken left ankle, which prevented him from finishing the season. Following that recovery and during the 2023 training camp, he experienced a fracture dislocation of his right ankle, which caused him to miss the entire 2023 season.
Named to the Comeback Player of the Year Award watch list by the College Sports Communicators (CSC), in association with The Associated Press and the Fiesta Bowl, Pancol has started all 12 games this season and caught 55 passes for 741 yards and nine touchdowns. His nine receiving scores lead the Blue Devils and are tied for fourth in the ACC.
Wake Forest redshirt senior wide receiver Taylor Morin has been named the recipient of the 2024 Jim Tatum Award, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced Monday.
The award is given annually in memory of the late Jim Tatum to the top senior student-athlete among the league’s football players. Tatum, a two-time ACC Coach of the Year, coached in the 1950s at both Maryland and North Carolina and believed strongly in the concept of the student-athlete.
A semifinalist for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy, which is presented annually by the National Football Foundation (NFF) and the College Football Hall of Fame to the best football scholar-athlete in the nation for their combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership, Morin has posted a career 3.77 cumulative grade point average while working toward a master’s degree in business administration after earning his bachelor’s degree in engineering.
A member of both the Dean’s List and AD Honor Roll in 11 of 11 semesters at Wake Forest, Morin is also a four-time member of the All-ACC Academic Team, a five-time member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll and a three-time Military Bowl 3M STEM Scholar-Athlete Program honoree (2022 and 2023).
