K-State qb earns preseason honor

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State senior quarterback Jesse Ertz picked up a pair of honors on Wednesday as he was named to the watch lists for the 2017 Davey O’Brien Award and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.

Ertz is one of 30 quarterbacks in the country to be a candidate for the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s best quarterback, while he is one of 47 named to the Golden Arm Award watch list, which honors the nation’s best senior signal caller.

Ertz is the sixth Wildcat to be a candidate for the Davey O’Brien Award and third since 2012. Current quarterbacks coach Collin Klein was a finalist in 2012, while Jake Waters was a semifinalist in 2014. Michael Bishop won the award in 1998, preceding former Wildcat finalists Chad May (1994) and Matt Miller (1993). Klein won the 2012 Johnny Unitas Award, while May (1994) and Bishop (1998) were finalists, and Waters (2014) was a preseason candidate.

A product of Burlington, Iowa, Ertz was one of three quarterbacks in school history and one of four in the nation last season to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 1,500 yards. He recorded 2,767 total offensive yards to rank 10th in school history, while he recorded the school’s 15th 1,000-yard rushing season.

Ertz, the MVP of the 2016 Texas Bowl, enters his senior campaign holding the school’s career record for lowest interception percentage (1.52 percent), ranked fourth in 100-yard rushing games among quarterbacks (3) and fifth in career rushing yards among quarterbacks (1,063).

Kansas State opens the 2017 campaign and begins a seven-game home schedule on Saturday, September 2, against Central Arkansas, a game that serves as the ninth-annual K-State Family Reunion. As K-State draws nearer to running its consecutive sellout streak to 40 games, tickets can be purchased through the K-State Athletics Ticket office online at www.k-statesports.com/tickets, by phone at 1-800-221-CATS or at the main ticket office inside Bramlage Coliseum.

Wildcats on Preseason Watch Lists

Jesse Ertz (QB) – Maxwell Award; Davey O’Brien Award; Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award

Will Geary (DT) – Bronko Nagurski Trophy; Outland Trophy

Reid Najvar (OL) – Rimington Trophy

Byron Pringle (WR/KR) – Paul Hornung Award

D.J. Reed (DB) – Bednarik Award; Bronko Nagurski Trophy; Jim Thorpe Award

Dalton Risner (OL) – Outland Trophy; Wuerffel Trophy; AFCA Good Works Team

Dayton Valentine (TE) – Mackey Award

Reggie Walker (DE) – Bronko Nagurski Trophy