Texas Tech junior quarterback Patrick Mahomes II added to his growing list of preseason accolades Thursday afternoon as he was named to the watch list for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
This is the fifth watch list already this summer for Mahomes, who is also a candidate for the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien Awards as well as the AFCA Good Works Team and the Wuerffel Trophy, both community-service related honors.
Mahomes emerged as one of the top quarterbacks in college football during his 2015 sophomore campaign where he became just the 13th player in FBS history to record 5,000 yards of total offense in a season. Mahomes is the youngest quarterback all-time to reach that mark.
The Whitehouse, Texas native frustrated opposing defenses with 4,653 passing yards while adding another 456 yards on the ground to lead a Tech offense that ranked second nationally in scoring offense. Individually, Mahomes ranked second nationally in both passing offense and total offense.
The Red Raiders averaged 45.1 points per game in 2015, the highest single-season mark in program history. In addition, Tech was the only school in a power-five conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC) to score at least 30 points in every game of the season.
The Johnny Unitas Award is presented annually to the nation’s top college quarterback based on character, citizenship, scholarship achievement, leadership qualities and athletic accomplishments. The award will be presented at a Dec. 9 ceremony in Baltimore, Maryland.
Mahomes and the Red Raiders open the 2016 season in less than a month when Tech hosts Stephen F. Austin on Sept. 3 inside Jones AT&T Stadium. Season tickets are still on sale and can be purchased online or by contacting the Texas Tech Ticket Office at 806-742-TECH.
(COURTESY: Texas Tech Sports Information Department)
