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WONDER BOYS QUARTERBACK NICK GRAZIANO NAMED ONE
OF 24 CANDIDATES FOR 2009 HARLON HILL TROPHY
FLORENCE,
Alabama –
Arkansas Tech senior quarterback Nick Graziano is
one of 24 candidates in the running for the 2009 Harlon
Hill Trophy as the NCAA Division II College Football
Player of the Year as announced by the National Harlon
Hill Award Committee on Friday.
 This
year’s slate of 24 candidates includes two finalists
from 2008 and two other players who were candidates last
season. The list 24 candidates includes six players from
each of Division II’s four Super Regionals.
It is the third time since Tech moved to the NCAA
Division II level in 1995 that the Wonder Boys have had
a Harlon Hill Trophy candidate as former quarterbacks
Todd Cooley and Cole Barthel were candidates
for the award in 1997 and 2008 respectively.
Graziano, who is a native of Moraga, Calif., and a
transfer from the University of Nevada, was one of the
six players chosen from Super Regional Two. The other
players named as candidates from Super Regional Two are
North Alabama senior quarterback Harrison Beck,
Carson-Newman senior quarterback Alex Good, Delta State
senior linebacker Lardester Hicks-Green, Albany State
senior running back Demetrice Johnson and Mars Hill
sophomore running back Jonas Randolph.
“I am extremely proud for Nick. He is very deserving of
this honor,” Tech Head Football Coach and Athletic
Director Steve Mullins said. “In his one season
at Tech, Nick has rewritten almost all of our
single-season passing records and will leave as one of
the best quarterbacks to ever play here.”
Graziano,
who will play his final regular season game as a Wonder
Boy on Saturday at Harding, earned his candidacy this
season after setting nearly every single Tech
single-season passing and total offense mark. On the
season, Graziano has passed for a single-season school
record 3,013 yards and has accounted for a school record
3,402 yards of total offense as he is also the team’s
leading rusher with 389 yards. As a passer, Graziano is
225-for-368 and has completed 61 percent of his passes
and is averaging a GSC-best 334.8 passing yards and 378
yards of total offense. In addition, he has thrown a
school record 27 touchdowns and has accounted for
single-season school record 32 touchdowns as he has
scored five times on the ground, including an 82-yard
rushing score last Saturday against Delta State and has
thrown nine interceptions. He enters Saturday’s game
with Harding ranked second nationally among all Division
II players in total offense and is third in passing
yards per game and is third in points responsible for. 
So far this season, Graziano has been named a Gulf South
Conference Offensive Player of the Week four times,
including the past two weeks and has been named a
National Offensive Player of the Week by D2Football.com
three times, including the previous two weeks. It is the
first time since 1996 (Valdosta State’s Lance Funderburk)
that a GSC player has earned four Offensive Player of
the Week accolades in the same season. He has also had
Tech’s only 400-yard passing games in school history, a
feat which has happened three times this season,
including throwing for a school record 456 yards in
Tech’s 44-14 win at Henderson State on Oct. 24 and has
accounted for four of the school’s Top 5 single-game
total offensive performances in history, including
gaining 546 yards of total offense in last week’s 35-23
win over Delta State. The 546 yards of total offense is
the sixth-best single-game effort in GSC history. Along
with that, Graziano has had 41 plays of 20 yards or more
and three of the Top 25 passing yard games in Division
II Football this year.
Players for the Harlon Hill Trophy are nominated and
voted on by the sports information directors at the 148
NCAA Division II football-playing schools. The initial
24 candidates will be placed on regional ballots and the
top two players from each of the four NCAA regions will
advance to the national Harlon Hill Trophy ballot when
regional voting concludes on November 13.
The winner of this year’s award, which is presented by
the National Harlon Hill Award Committee, will be
announced at the 24th annual Harlon Hill Trophy
Presentation Banquet on Friday, Dec. 11 at the Florence
Conference Center at 6:30 p.m. This year’s Hill Trophy
Banquet will also include the 11th induction into the
Division II Football Hall of Fame, with Shannon Sharpe
becoming the 25th inductee. The Harlon Hill Trophy
Presentation is one day before the NCAA Division II
Championship Game, which is scheduled for noon on
Saturday, Dec. 12 at Florence’s Braly Municipal Stadium.
Tickets for the Harlon Hill Banquet are $50 each or $400
for a table of eight and can be purchased by calling the
Shoals Chamber of Commerce at (256) 764-4661. The Harlon
Hill Trophy is sponsored by the City of Florence, Ala.,
Florence-Lauderdale Tourism, Opti-Net, the Marriott
Shoals Hotel and Spa and Herff Jones.
Abilene Christian running back Bernard Scott was the
winner of last year’s Harlon Hill Trophy. Texas A&I (now
Texas A&M-Kingsville) running back Johnny Bailey was the
award’s only three-time winner (1987-89), while Valdosta
State quarterback Dusty Bonner won the award in
back-to-back years (2000 and 2001). Since the award’s
inception in 1986, four different players from the GSC
have won the award, with the most recent winner being
North Alabama quarterback Will Hall in 2003. Other GSC
winners of the Hill Trophy are Valdosta State
quarterback Chris Hatcher in 1994 and North Alabama
linebacker Ronald McKinnon in 1995.
Among the returning candidates from last season for this
year’s Hill Trophy are Grand Valley State senior
quarterback Brad Iciek and Edinboro University senior
quarterback Trevor Harris, both of whom were finalists
last season. Also appearing on the ballot for the second
consecutive year are Northwest Missouri State senior
running back LaRon Council and Ashland senior
quarterback Billy Cundiff.
Here is a list of candidates for this year’s Harlon Hill
Trophy from the other three super regions.
Super Regional 1 –West
Liberty State junior quarterback Zach Amedro,
Shippensburg senior split end Michael Harris, Edinboro’s
Trevor Harris, Clarion junior running back Alfonso
Hoggard, California [PA] senior receiver A.J. Jackson
and Concord sophomore receiver Thomas Mayo.
Super Regional 3 –
Wayne State [MI] senior running back Joique Bell,
Cundiff, Iciek, Wayne State [NE] senior receiver Logan
Masters, Minnesota-Duluth junior running back Isaac Odim
and Colorado School of Mines senior quarterback David
Pesek.
Super Regional 4 -
Council, Midwestern State junior quarterback Zack
Eskridge, Southwest Baptist junior quarterback Steve
Gachette, Texas A&M-Kingsville senior quarterback Billy
Garza, Eastern New Mexico sophomore quarterback J.J.
Harp and Missouri Western junior quarterback Drew
Newhart.
Complete Harlon Hill Trophy release
-- Tech Athletics
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