AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn football player Jacob Quattlebaum was named the male recipient of the Spring 2022 PNC Achievers Award and honored on the field prior to the Penn State game. The award is given out to student-athletes based on their well-rounded achievement through leadership, academic success, community engagement and in competition.
Quattlebaum grew up in Enterprise, Alabama, as an Auburn fan. When he had the opportunity to walk on in 2018 and play football for the Tigers, he took it. Last year, the Wednesday before Auburn traveled to Penn State, he earned a scholarship as the team's long snapper.
However, long snapper is just one of many roles Quattlebaum has had while at Auburn. He was President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) this past academic year and served as Vice President the year before that. He's also graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and is currently working on his MBA.
Here is Quattlebaum, in his own words, talking about the PNC Achiever Award and what goes into being a well-rounded student-athlete at Auburn.
Q: What does it mean to be a PNC Achiever?
Quattlebaum: It's very much a blessing. I came in as a walk-on student-athlete in 2018. Obviously, academics was a huge importance to me. I'm in electrical engineering. I wanted that degree, and I really wanted to come out of Auburn as a better student of engineering, of life, of just continuous learning. I really think that's what the PNC Achievers is all about. Yes, it's academics, it's community, it's athletics. But it's all about learning different roles. I worked with SAAC, and SAAC provided me so many opportunities to learn how to be a better leader, how to work with different teams, how to work with student-athletes where if they need something I can go talk to administration and learn how to communicate with those in higher powers. It's about being a student in all aspects of your life rather than focusing on only athletics or only academics. It's also making Auburn the best it can be – doing what I can to make Auburn better as well as learn as much as I can from Auburn.
Q: What are some of the things you've been involved with outside of football?
Quattlebaum: This kind of ties back to SAAC but community service trips, working in the community – whether it be through church, whether it be through football going and doing a community service day, whether it be through SAAC going on a community service trip or whether it's just myself going back home to help different people that I know who need my help with projects. My freshman year I took a community service trip to the Dominican Republic. Outside of football, it's what I can do for my community.
Q: You talked about SAAC. What did you gain from that experience?
Quattlebaum: Learning how to take initiative and to be the leader when nobody wants to speak up about something. There were a lot of hard conversations in the last couple of years. We've created a Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee. We've had to find new ways to work in the community because of COVID. We've had to find work through NIL with all of our student-athletes. It's stepping up when nobody really understands what's going on. We have to take all this information we're given from 13 sports and 26 teams and be able to fine tune it, go talk to the right person that can give us answers, but then subsequently come up with answers on our own and figure out new and intuitive ways to do something.
Q: What is the definition of a student-athlete?
Quattlebaum: I think a lot of people look at student-athletes as athlete-students, and don't get me wrong, we work a full-time job with our athletics. But first and foremost, comes your academic piece. You're never going to be eligible without the academics. What does it mean to be a student-athlete? Time management. Like I said, you're working a full-time job no matter what team you're on, and then you have to figure out a way to go to all of your classes, get all of your assignments done, and find some time for your personal life. At times I did a bad job of blocking out certain things in my personal life that I actually needed for me and my mental health. So, it's being able to manage all of your responsibilities while also maintaining a personal life you can enjoy going home to every day. Being a student-athlete is being a time manager.
Q: What is the plan for you after Auburn?
Quattlebaum: I graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in May. I'm currently in my master's program for Business Administration. I will finish my MBA in December 2023, and then after that, if an opportunity opens up in football, whether it be the NFL or whatever it may be, I would look into that. But at the same time, if I'm at the point where I am ready to kind of put football aside, I'm hoping for something that can tie that business degree with my engineering degree. I'm not sure what exactly that looks like this at this point, but I have an internship lined up next summer to where I can kind of figure that out.
Q: What does the Auburn Family mean to you?
Quattlebaum: The Auburn Family, it's a community that is unlike any other. You can ask anybody that comes to Auburn for the first time, and it's just different than anything you've ever been a part of because people are willing to stick their neck out for somebody who's in the Auburn Family. People are willing to provide opportunities. People are willing to help when you're at your lowest point. People are willing to humble you when you're at your highest point. The Auburn Family is exactly that. It's a family. You can come to the Auburn Family with anything, and you'll find somebody that can support you or that you can support. It's bringing that cohesiveness to one place. It's a family that is willing to do whatever it needs to help another family member.