Being a football player in the Pac-12 Conference is an accomplishment in itself, yet senior linebacker Jake Matthews strives for more than performance on the field. He's also working for excellence in the classroom as well.
 
His major, you ask? Neuroscience and Cognitive Science.
 
"I'm interested in the brain and all of its entities," Matthews said. "It's one of the things in our bodies that we know the littlest about, but at the same time, we know so much. I think it's really cool."
 
Matthews knows a thing or two about balancing sports and school as a nominee for the National Football Foundation's Scholar-Athlete award during high school, to being drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 2013 MLB Draft
 
"He's a guy that is always reliable and always does what he's supposed to do," said Andy Salgado, his academic counselor. "He's very on top of the courses he has to do well in so that implies he has a good resume to go along with it."
 
His course load is not light either, as Matthews' states his favorite classes have been Neuroscience 200, an introductory course, and Cellular Neurophysiology.
 
Matthews has never seen football as a burden to his academic endeavors, but as a foundation for his future.
 
"I have a platform here as a student-athlete to be able to succeed," the Tucson native said. "It takes a lot of time out of your school and academics to be a football player, but if you use your time wisely, you can get a lot done and actually, in the end, it benefits you and helps you with your career goals."
 
Matthews' goal upon graduation is medical school, which is something he has known and strived for since high school.
 
"There's so many reasons but I think the main reason is because I want to help people," Matthews said. "When you're not healthy, you're not yourself, you don't have a good quality of life and just by helping people, psychologically and physically, and you can improve their lives."
 
To achieve that, Matthews has put in his time away from the field in order to prepare for medical school and expand his resume. This includes shadowing an anesthesiologist, shadowing the orthopedic surgeon that operated on him late last season, doing four credits of research through the College of Medicine, as well as community service.
 
This has involved sacrifices for Matthews, who leads a busier schedule then the average college student, but never excuses himself from getting the job done.
 
"I don't have much of a social life, you can ask the other guys," Matthews said. "If you have an hour in between classes, go to the library, go to your class early, review, get homework done when you have time. Just don't waste your time. It's good to have a social life but at the same time it's not going to help you reach your goals."