BALTIMORE, MD (10/08/19) – After six weeks of play, the 2019 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award® presented by A. O. Smith has narrowed its season watch list to 20 of the country’s top college quarterbacks based on player performance on-and-off the field.
Cue the memes....If anyone would like a good laugh, look at the top 20 finalists for the 2019 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Fields, Tua, Lawrence, and Ehlinger are just some of the names I was surprised to see excluded, so I figured clearly something is wrong. With Shea Patterson's inclusion, something definitely is off. I thought maybe it was just for seniors at first, but I looked into it and McDonald, Eason, and Brown aren't seniors. It does reward performance on AND off the field. Maybe Shea is the polar opposite off the field and the reward is actually based 1% on the field performance and 99% off the field? Naturally, hoping Burrow takes it home now.
Top 20 Golden Arm Award Candidates:
Jack Abraham, Southern Miss
Ian Book, Notre Dame
Anthony Brown, Boston College
Kelly Bryant, Missouri
Joe Burrow, LSU
Jacob Eason, University of Washington
Caleb Evans, Louisiana Monroe
Mason Fine, North Texas
Quentin Harris, Duke
Justin Herbert, Oregon
Tyler Huntley, Utah
Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma
Brian Lewerke, Michigan State
Cole McDonald, Hawaii
Steven Montez, Colorado
Shea Patterson, Michigan
Bryce Perkins, Virginia
Nate Stanley, Iowa
Zach Thomas, Appalachian State
Brady White, Memphis
Past standout winners of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award® include: Peyton Manning (Tennessee, 1997); Carson Palmer (USC, 2002); Eli Manning (Ole Miss, 2003); Brady Quinn (Notre Dame, 2006); Matt Ryan (Boston College, 2007); Colt McCoy (Texas, 2009), Andrew Luck (Stanford, 2011), Marcus Mariota (Oregon, 2014) Connor Cook (Michigan State, 2015) Deshaun Watson (Clemson, 2016) Mason Rudolph (Oklahoma State 2017) and last year’s winner Gardner Minshew, II (Washington State).
