Wake Forest safety Ryan Janvion has been named the winner of the ACC’s Jim Tatum Award, symbolic of the conference’s top senior student-athlete. Janvion will be recognized on Saturday during the ACC Football Championship Game between Clemson and Virginia Tech in Orlando. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Miami native has maintained a 3.53 GPA while earning a degree in business and enterprise management. He recently became the first Deacon ever named as a National Football Foundation national scholar-athlete when he earned recognition as one of 12 finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy. Janvion has been just as successful on the field, as a four-year starter who led his team in tackles as both a freshman and sophomore. This year, he has recorded 42 tackles, one interception and a fumble recovery despite missing two games because of injury to help Wake become bowl eligible for the first time since 2011. The Tatum Award is given annually in memory of the late Jim 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. Janvion’s selection ends a run of four straight Duke winners. He is the first Deacon to take home the honor since quarterback Riley Skinner in 2009.Also Thursday, the ACC announced that Pittsburgh’s James Conner is the 2016 winner of the Brian Piccolo Award, given annually to the ACC’s most courageous player. Conner earned first-team All-ACC honors this season after missing all last year while battling cancer and a serious knee injury.
