OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Patrick Laird has been selected as a NCAA® Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) finalist for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award honoring student-athletes who excel both on and off the field.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I FBS senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

The finalists were chosen from the list of 30 candidates announced earlier in the season by a selection committee. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to help select the winner and fans are encouraged to vote on the Senior CLASS Award website though December 5. Fan votes will be combined with media and Division I head coaches' votes to determine the winner. The Senior CLASS Award will be announced during the football bowl season in early January.

For more information on all of the finalists, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.

Below are notes on Laird with an extended bio available by clicking on his name.

Patrick Laird, RB, 6-0, 205, Sr., 2L, Arroyo Grande, CA (Mission Prep)

• National honors candidate as a 2018 senior
• 2018 Senior CLASS Award finalist
• 2018 AFCA Good Works Team® selection
• 2018 Campbell Trophy semifinalist
• On watch lists for 2018 Maxwell Award and Wuerffel Trophy
• Candidate for 2018 Doak Walker Award, Burlsworth Trophy, Disney Spirit Award and Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award
• Earned 2018 second-team preseason All-Pac-12 honors from Athlon and Lindy's as well as being a fourth-team pick of Phil Steele
• Has started each of the team's first seven games as a senior and leads the squad in rushing with 577 yards and five touchdowns on 120 carries
• Also paces the team with 762 all-purpose yards, 48 points and eight total touchdowns
• Second on the squad with 30 receptions for 185 yards with a team-high-tying three touchdown grabs
• Has played in 35 career games with 15 starts and rushed for 1769 yards with 14 touchdowns on the ground on 322 carries, while adding 78 receptions for 505 yards receiving and four touchdowns for totals of 2274 all-purpose yards and 18 touchdowns as well as one successful two-point conversion to total 110 points
• A two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection who picked up first-team honors as a 2017 junior after earning second-team recognition in his 2016 sophomore campaign, while adding CoSIDA Academic All-District® recognition as a junior
• Has served as one of Cal's season team captains as both a junior and senior
• Hosted the Patrick Laird Summer Reading Challenge with participants who completed the challenge receiving an opportunity to meet Laird following Cal's 2018 season-opener September 1 against North Carolina and receive four complimentary tickets to the game
• Had over 3,600 students sign up for the challenge and promoted the event thru social and traditional media, as well as during visits and speaking engagements with 23 schools and three camps in the Bay Area and his hometown area of Arroyo Grande on the Central Coast since the announcement of the challenge in April of 2018