“Instabilities of the Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid Three Body Problem.” That’s the name of the paper Ravens rookie Guard John Urschel published in the Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy scholarly journal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Urschel) during his time at Penn State. Like fellow football star/scholar Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Urschel hails from our northern brother in Winnipeg, Canada. Also like Duvernay-Tardif, Urschel graduated with outstanding grades. Urschel has a 4.0 gpa in his Bachelors and 4.0 in his master’s in mathematics. But two college degrees just isn’t enough for John Urschel. He’s begun work on a master’s in Math Education and has intentions “of earning a Ph.D. after his football career has been completed.” Why not? If you’re going to be a Canadian-born football star/Mega Scholar, you may as well go all the way.
Urschel also has experience teaching at Penn State in undergrad math courses. Urschel “also is doing research in multigrid methods and computational mathematics.” I don’t think my skull will ever grow large enough to hold enough brain matter for me to be able to understand what “multigrid methods” or “computational methods” are.
Urschel is also a talented enough lineman to be drafted by the Ravens in the fifth round. Nolan Nawrocki, creator of much of the content for nfl.com’s “draft profiles” had this to say about Urschel. “Underpowered, quick-footed, scrappy, zone blocker with the smarts, movement skill and competitive zeal to emerge as a very efficient pro. Displays the quickness highly desired at the pivot and might prove to be best at center.”
Urschel’s collected 24 starts at right guard during his time at Penn State and was a team captain at Penn State. Urschel has great size to be a next level interior lineman with a solid combine effort of a 5.31 40 time and 30 reps on the benchpress.
Many college athletes take the easiest courses and have tutors practically do the work for them. Urschel took the opposite direction and showed he’s dedicated to something other than himself or even sports. His work will benefit him and his other life endeavors forever and Urschel stands as a great example for young people as to what the point of College really is. To be passionate about and learn to apply something major into your life.
All sources, metrics, data, statistics, quotes (regarding Urschel’s academics), the title of the journal and paper come from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Urschel.
The quote by Nolan Nawrocki and the information about Urschel’s starts and combine performance come from http://www.nfl.com/draft/2014/profiles/john-urschel?id=2543845.
Gridiron Seasonal 