Brockman Finishes 11th, Denham 21st in Walter Payton Award Balloting

Brockman Finishes 11th, Denham 21st in Walter Payton Award Balloting

Sports Network Release

The results of the voting for the Walter Payton Award was announced on Thursday. The award is given by the Sports Network to the top player in Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Murray State junior quarterback Casey Brockman finished 11th in the voting while Eastern Kentucky junior running back Matt Denham finished 21st.

The top three vote getters were also revealed but not the order in which they finished in the voting. Either Chris Lum of Lehigh, Bo Levi Mitchell of Eastern Washington or Shakir Bell of Indiana State will win the award at the FCS Awards Banquet on Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas. This marks the 25th year the award has been handed out and it is sponsored by Fathead.com.

A national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries voted on the award winner.

Brockman received three first-place votes, five second-place votes, seven third-place votes, five fourth-place votes and seven fifth-place votes for a total of 73 points. 

Brockman rewrote the MSU and Ohio Valley Conference single-season record books as he went 316-for-477 for 3,276 yards and 25 touchdowns.  He also rushed for 211 yards and four touchdowns, while catching two passes for 25 yards and two scores.  He set new records for attempts and completions, while his 3,267 passing yards rank second to former Racer Justin Fuente's 3,498 yards during the 1999 season.  Brockman established a new OVC mark as he compiled 3,487 yards of total offense, breaking Fuente's 1999 mark of 3,407. The junior made NCAA history this season as he threw for an FCS-record 422 yards in the first half against Tennessee State.  He went on to throw for 600 yards and seven touchdowns, becoming just the fifth player in FCS history to throw for 600 yards in a game.  He also caught a touchdown pass in that game and earned five National Player of the Week honors.

Since taking over the offense at the midway point of the 2010 season, Brockman has led the Racers to 12-5 record, while setting every single-game record at MSU.  He has thrown for over 300 yards eight times, and has passed for over 400 yards twice in each of the last two seasons. Brockman will enter his final season with a chance to break the school career records for attempts (260), completions (70), yards (2,371), touchdowns (9) and total offense (3,169). 

Denham was a write-in candidate and received one third-place vote and one fourth-place vote to tally five points.

Despite not taking over the starter's role until the fifth game of the season (he rushed for 94 total yards in the first four games), Denham carried the ball 254 times for 1,570 yards (6.2 yards/carry) and nine touchdowns in 12 games (including last week's playoff game). For the entire season his 130.8 yards/game ranked third nationally although he averaged 187.1 yards/game as a starter, a figure that would have ranked first nationally by 35.3 yards/game.

During his eight games as a starter he rushed for 200 or more yards in four games, tied with ISU's Bell for the most in the country this season. That included 216 yards against Eastern Illinois (Oct. 8), 226 yards against Tennessee State (Oct. 22), 219 yards against Murray State (Oct. 29) and 209 yards against Jacksonville State (Nov. 5).

He finished the season with eight-straight games with 100 or more rushing yards, the longest active streak in the FCS. The eight-straight games is the longest 100-yard rushing streak in the OVC since the 2005 season (JSU's Clay Green).