Maryland starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. has been named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Top 25 List on Monday, becoming one of just six Big Ten quarterbacks to make the list.
Among FBS quarterbacks, Edwards sits eighth in completion percentage (72.3%), 14th in passing yards per game (288.8) and 18th in total passing yards (1,444) while he’s recorded multiple touchdown passes in all five games this season, joining Taulia Tagovailoa and Danny O’Brien as the only Maryland quarterbacks to do so in the last 30 years.
Edwards finished 28-of-32 for a career-high 328 yards and a pair of touchdowns as he set the single-game school record for completion percentage, a stat once held by Taulia Tagovailoa. Edwards also became the second Big Ten quarterback since 1996 to record a game with at least 30 pass attempts and 300 passing yards while completing 87.5% of his passes as head coach Mike Locksley routinely emphasized his starting quarterback was playing “really clean, good football.”
“A play happened in a game that just kind of just stamped his passport that he's made that, taken that next step. The last touchdown we had. We were in a formation. He saw that there was a blitz coming off the edge, and something that's not even in our system, he points at Kaden Prather and says, ‘hey, you come in here, line in close’ and turn out on them which allowed the edge rusher to not to be a free hitter,” Locksley said following the Virginia win. “Like that's mitigating risk. That's having the mind of a coach but still the skill of a player. Billy's playing really clean for us, making good decisions.”
Per release, this year’s award winner will be presented the Golden Army Award Trophy at the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, December 6, 2024.
Full List:
Drew Allar, Penn State
Luke Altmyer, Illinois
Rocco Becht, Iowa State
Carson Beck, Georgia
Brady Cook, Missouri
Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
Billy Edwards Jr., Maryland
Quinn Ewers, Texas
Noah Fifita, Arizona
Dillon Gabriel, Oregon
Seth Henigan, Memphis
Will Howard, Ohio State
Haynes King, Georgia Tech
Cade Klubnik, Clemson
Riley Leonard, Notre Dame
Kyle McCord, Syracuse
Fernando Mendoza, Cal
Jalen Milroe, Alabama
Behren Morton, Texas Tech
Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
Kurtis Rourke, Indiana
Shedeur Sanders, Colorado
Tyler Shough, Louisville
Brendan Sorsby, Cincinnati
Cam Ward, Miami
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