Louisville Quarterback Lamar Jackson is the 2016 Walter Camp Player of the Year
University of Louisville sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson (Pompano Beach, Fla.) has been selected as the 2016 Walter Camp Player of the Year. The Walter Camp Player of the Year is voted on by the nation’s 129 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors.
Lamar Jackson with Walter Camp President Rob Kauffman at the College Football Hall of Fame (photo courtesy of Mike Madera).
2016 Walter Camp Player of the Year – Lamar Jackson-FINAL
Other finalists for the 2016 Walter Camp Player of the Year award included quarterbacks Deshaun Watson (Clemson) and Jake Browning (Washington), defensive lineman Jonathan Allen (Alabama), and linebacker/return specialist Jabrill Peppers (Michigan).
The 50th recipient of the Walter Camp Player of the Year award, Jackson is the first Cardinals player to win the prestigious honor. Jackson is the 18th quarterback to earn the award. Jackson is also ninth player from an Atlantic Coast Conference school to win the award, and the second in the last four years (Jameis Winston, Florida State, 2013).
Jackson has been a dual-threat at quarterback for the 9-3 Cardinals, who will face LSU in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl on December 31 in Orlando, FL. The 2016 ACC Player of the Year, Jackson is the first player in Football Bowl Subdivision history to register 3,300 passing yards and 1,500 rushing yards in a season. Jackson also became just the sixth player in FBS history to rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in the same season.
The Pompano Beach, Fla., native set an ACC record by accounting for 51 combined touchdowns (rushing and passing), which ranks second-best nationally. Jackson also ranks second in the nation in total offense (410.7 yards per game). He broke the conference record for rushing yards (1,538 yards) and rushing touchdowns (21) by a quarterback. His 1,538 rushing yards were also a school record. He has accounted for 73.4 percent of his team’s total offense this season.
Voted one of the team’s captains, Jackson has passed for 3,390 yards and 30 touchdowns. He totaled a pair of 400-yard passing games this year, including a career-best 417 yards in a win on the road at Marshall on Sept. 24, and 411 yards in a victory at Syracuse on Sept. 9.
Jackson amassed an ACC single-game record of 610 total yards in the win over Syracuse, a game in which he came within one rushing yard of becoming the first player in FBS history to run for 400 yards and pass for 200 yards in the same game.
Jackson was a three-time Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week honoree (Sept, 4, Sept. 11 and Nov. 6) – the first three-time winner in the 13-year history of the award.
Jackson, along with members of the 2016 Walter Camp All-America team, and other major award winners (Alumni Award-Orlando Pace; Man of the Year-Warrick Dunn; Distinguished American-Mike Ditka), will be honored at the organization’s national awards banquet, presented by KeyBank, on Saturday, January 14, 2017, at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.
The Walter Camp Football Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients.
Walter Camp Players of the Year
2016 – Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville
2015 – Derrick Henry, RB, Alabama
2014 – Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon
2013 – Jameis Winston, QB, Florida State
2012 – Manti Te’o, LB, Notre Dame
2011 – Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
2010 – Cam Newton, QB, Auburn
2009 – Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
2008 – Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
2007 – Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas
2006 – Troy Smith, QB, Ohio State
2005 – Reggie Bush, RB, USC
2004 – Matt Leinart, QB, USC
2003 – Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Pittsburgh
2002 – Larry Johnson, RB, Penn State
2001 – Eric Crouch, QB, Nebraska
2000 – Josh Heupel, QB, Oklahoma
1999 – Ron Dayne, RB, Wisconsin
1998 – Ricky Williams, RB, Texas
1997 – Charles Woodson, DB, Michigan
1996 – Danny Wuerffel, QB, Florida
1995 – Eddie George, RB, Ohio State
1994 – Rashaan Salaam, RB, Colorado
1993 – Charlie Ward, QB, Florida State
1992 – Gino Torretta, QB, Miami
1991 – Desmond Howard, WR, Michigan
1990 – Raghib Ismail, WR, Notre Dame
1989 – Anthony Thompson, RB, Indiana
1988 – Barry Sanders, RB, Oklahoma State
1987 – Tim Brown, WR, Notre Dame
1986 – Vinny Testaverde, QB, Miami
1985 – Bo Jackson, RB, Auburn
1984 – Doug Flutie, QB, Boston College
1983 – Mike Rozier, RB, Nebraska
1982 – Herschel Walker, RB, Georgia
1981 – Marcus Allen, RB, USC
1980 – Hugh Green, DE, Pittsburgh
1979 – Charles White, RB, USC
1978 – Billy Sims, RB, Oklahoma
1977 – Ken MacAfee, TE, Notre Dame
1976 – Tony Dorsett, RB, Pittsburgh
1975 – Archie Griffin, RB, Ohio State
1974 – Archie Griffin, RB, Ohio State
1973 – John Cappelletti, RB, Penn State
1972 – Johnny Rodgers, RB, Nebraska
1971 – Pat Sullivan, QB, Auburn
1970 – Jim Plunkett, QB, Stanford
1969 – Steve Owens, RB, Oklahoma
1968 – O.J. Simpson, RB, USC
1967 – O.J. Simpson, RB, USC
