QB Stan Hill Named to O'Brien Award Watch List

7/13/2004

Marshall QB Stan Hill averaged 9.25 yards per completion, the sixth best average in the NCAA in 2003.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Marshall University senior quarterback Stan Hill (Tupelo, Miss.) has been placed on the preseason watch list for the 2004 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award, given annually to the nation’s top college quarterback, the Davey O’Brien Foundation announced today.

Hill, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound right-hander, passed for 1,767 yards and 15 touchdowns in only six games in 2003. A knee injury forced Hill to limited duty, but the senior is fully recovered and poised for a strong season as the Thundering Herd’s signal caller in 2004.

Hill’s quarterback ranking of 165.9 last season was second best nationally and his 69.6 percent completion clip was fourth in the country. He is Marshall’s all-time leader in completion percentage, having completed 67 percent of his passes in his career.

The O’Brien Award is the oldest and most prestigious award in the country for college quarterbacks and is named in honor of the late Davey O’Brien, the All-American and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Texas Christian University. O’Brien led the Horned Frogs to the 1938 national championship.

Semifinalists will be announced in early November and narrowed to three finalists later in that month by the O’Brien National Advisory Committee. The committee is comprised of nationally known sportswriters, commentators and other members of the media. The winner of the 2004 O’Brien Award will be announced Dec. 9 on the ESPN College Football Awards Show in Orlando, Fla. The winner will be honored at the 28th Annual O’Brien Awards Dinner in February 2005 at the Fort Worth Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hill is one of four Mid-American Conference quarterbacks on the watch list, joining Akron’s Charlie Frye, Toledo’s Bruce Gradkowski and Northern Illinois’ Josh Haldi. Forty-two total quarterbacks have been placed on the preseason watch list.

Oklahoma quarterback Jason White won the 2003 O’Brien Award.