Hall of Fame
Despite all the impressive statistics and a host of post-season accolades quarterback Sean Schaefer piled up while a three-year starter at Northern High School, he was a second or third choice of every college that recruited him except one – Towson.
“A couple of games into my senior year I started to hear from colleges,” Sean recalls. “Most of them admitted I wasn’t their top choice. But Towson was up front and said I was their top guy at quarterback. I told them I wanted to wait until the end of the year to make a decision, just to see what else might happen. Then I got a call from them telling me they had only one scholarship for a quarterback and that if I didn’t commit they had someone else they were going to give it to. After a weekend trip to campus with my parents I accepted.”
While at Northern Sean threw for over 4500 yards and tossed 45 touchdown passes as a three-year varsity starter. In his final season he passed for 2400 yards in leading the 8-3 Patriots to their first state playoff trip in 13 years. He was named Calvert County Offensive Player of the Year, first team All-Metro, first team All-Conference and first team All-State.
After a redshirt year Sean stepped right in as the Tigers’ starter. In fact, he started 44 of his 45 career games at Towson, finishing as the Tigers’ all-time passing leader with 11,644 yards. He is the only Tiger quarterback to throw for over 10,000 yards and at the time of his graduation he was just the 20th quarterback in FCS history to surpass the 10,000-yard mark. He is also the program’s career leader in total offense (11,415 yards), passing attempts (1,321), completions (1,044), completion percentage (.648). His single game records include most consecutive passes completed (15), most TD passes (5, tied) and completion percentage (29-33 for .879). He is second all-time with 76 TD passes.
After his junior year Sean led all active FCS quarterbacks with 8,358 yards and 741 career completions. He was elected team captain as a junior and senior, becoming Towson’s first junior captain in 30 years.
In his most memorable college performance, he led the Tigers on a 67-yard, 4-play drive in the final 22 seconds as Towson upset No. 14 Richmond 23-21 with Sean’s walk-off 14-yard TD pass as time expired providing the game winner. He was named National Player of the Week for that performance. During his career he was named Player of the Week four times in the Atlantic 10, three times by the Sports Network and twice by the ECAC. He was a 3rd team All-CAA selection in 2008.
