Briscoe Claims 2016 Walter Payton Award
1/6/2017 10:55:00 PM | Football
FRISCO, Texas – Sam Houston State quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe became the first Bearkat to claim the Walter Payton Award after claiming the honor on Friday at the STATS FCS Awards Banquet.
The junior Bearkat quarterback came into the night as one of three finalists for the honor alongside Eastern Washignton teammates Gage Gubrud and Cooper Kupp, who had won the award in 2015. In the end Briscoe dominated the voting, earning 77 first-place votes and 569 points, more than twice as many first-place and total votes as the next closest in the voting.
"It's an absolutely true honor, but none of that happens without the best receiving corps in the country," Briscoe said. "Our receivers kept making plays and plays and crazy catches. That's what happens when our offensive line protects the way they do and our receivers just make plays. It's not me at all."
He was just the second Bearkat to be invited to the award's ceremony as a top-three finalist, and is just the second player from the Southland Conference to claim the Walter Payton Award, joining Stephen F. Austin's Jeremy Moses who won the award following the 2010 season.
Briscoe laid claim to the Payton Award by assaulting the Sam Houston and national record books throughout the year. He threw 52 touchdown passes in the regular season and added five more in the Bearkats' second-round playoff win over Chattanooga, giving him 57 for the year and breaking the FCS record for touchdown passes that had stood since 1984.
He has earned multiple all-America honors following the conclusion of the regular season, including first team from the AP, HERO Sports and the AFCA while also being named the Southland Conference Player of the Year.
Briscoe completed nearly 63 percent of his passes and threw for 4.602 yards through the air despite having just 136 of his 503 pass attempts come in the second half of games this year, and just 52 in the fourth quarter. Briscoe threw for better than 300 yards and three scores in each of Sam Houston's first three games before setting a new Sam Houston record with seven touchdown passes in just three quarters of work in the Battle of the Piney Woods against SFA.
From there Briscoe would account for six more games with at least five touchdown passes, including another seven-touchdown game in the regular-season finale against Central Arkansas that helped the Kats clinch the Southland Conference title. In all Briscoe finished with five games of at least 400 yards in the air, including a season-best 504 yards to go with six scores in a win over McNeese on Nov. 5 at Bowers Stadium.
Behind Briscoe, the Sam Houston averaged 49.5 points and 547.3 yards per game.
He was selected from 25 finalists by a national panel of over 150 sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries. With winning the Walter Payton Award, Briscoe also earned the first-team quarterback spot on the STATS FCS All-America team.
