Best of 2016-17: No. 2
7/31/2017 11:00:00 AM | Football
The 2016-17 season was filled with highlights and headlines for the Sam Houston State Bearkats. Awards were won, records were broken and five Southland Conference titles made their way back to Huntsville.
With the upcoming 2017-18 athletic season nearing its start, Bearkat Athletics is taking a look back at the 2016-17 season throughout the summer months, highlighting the best of the past year.
Continue to keep tabs on GoBearkats.com and follow @BearkatSports on Twitter to catch the top stories of 2016-17 as they are unveiled.
Game Story: Briscoe Wins 2016 Walter Payton Award
HUNTSVILLE – Since joining the Division I ranks in 1986 no Bearkat had ever claimed the top individual honor in the FCS, but that changed in early January when Sam Houston quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe was named the winner of the Walter Payton Award.
The award was given out at the annual STATS FCS Awards Banquet prior to the playing of the FCS National Championship game in Frisco with Briscoe joined by Gage Gubrud and Cooper Kupp, both of Eastern Washington.
But neither Kupp, the 2015 Payton Award winner, nor Gubrud, who set a new FCS record in passing yardage could hold up to Briscoe's exploits in 2016. The Bearkat quarterback earned 77 first-place votes and 569 total points in the voting, more than twice as many than anyone else in the voting to run away with the award.
There's hardware is coming back to Huntsville.
— Sam Houston Football (@BearkatsFB) January 7, 2017
Jeremiah Briscoe has won the 2016 Walter Payton Award!! #EatEmUpKats pic.twitter.com/RmtIOfP0IL
With winning the award, Briscoe became not only the first Bearkat to win the award, but just the second player from the Southland Conference to do so, joining Stephen F. Austin's Jeremy Moses who won the award in 2010.
The award was little surprise after Briscoe rewrote the record books in 2016, throwing 57 touchdown passes break the previous FCS record that had stood since 1984. He completed nearly 63 percent of his passes and threw for 4,602 yards and did almost all of his work exclusively in the first half with only 136 of his 503 pass attempts on the year coming in the final two periods of play.
He threw for at least 300 yards in 11 of 13 games, including a 504-yard night that included six touchdowns against McNeese. The previous single-game record for Sam Houston was five touchdown passes entering 2016, but Briscoe equaled or surpassed that number seven times last year, including setting a new program record with seven scores on two separate occasions.
In addition to Briscoe's honor, the Bearkats were easily the most well-represented at the banquet that night, and in the overall superlative awards from STATS FCS in 2016. Head coach K.C. Keeler joined Briscoe on the stage in accepting the Eddie Robinson Award as the top head coach in the FCS level, making him the first Bearkat head coach and the third in the history of the SLC to win the honor.
P.J. Hall was also in Frisco as a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, finishing second in the voting for an honor given out to the top defensive player in the nation.
Best of 2016-17 in Bearkat Athletics Schedule
No. 20 – Softball Sweeps HBU To Clinch SLC Tournament Berth
No. 19 – Football Clinches Southland Conference Title
No. 18 – Baseball Opens SLC Play With 13 Straight Wins
No. 17 – Men's Golf Takes Second At Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational
No. 16 – Briscoe Throws 7 TD As Kats Blast 'Jacks In Battle Of The Piney Woods
No. 15 – Gettwart Leads Women's Tennis To Win At First-Place Lamar
No. 14 – Three Bearkats Reach 1,000-Point Mark For Careers
No. 13 – Women's golf wins school-record five tournaments
No. 12 – Offensive outburst leads Women's Basketball to win over Demons
No. 11 – Women's Tennis Clinches First Tourney Berth Since 2013
No. 10 – Bowling Earns Berth In NCAA Championships
No. 9 – Volleyball Makes Run To SLC Tournament Finals
No. 8 – Softball Walks Off With Win Over UCA In SLC Tournament
No. 7 – Men's Basketball Runs Streak To 8, Defeats SFA
No. 6 – Baseball Claims SLC Tournament Title
No. 5 – Defensive Stand Seals Football Playoff Win Over Chattanooga
No. 4 – Track & Field Dominates Southland Meets
No. 3 – Williams' Steal Seals Men's Basketball Quarterfinals Win
No. 2 – Briscoe Wins Walter Payton Award
No. 1 – Aug. 2
