NASHVILLE — Youngstown State quarterback Beau Brungard won the Walter Payton Award as the Football Championship Subdivision’s offensive player of the year Saturday night at the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Show.
Brungard had 177 points, receiving 28 first-place votes from a national panel. Western Carolina quarterback Taron Dickens was second with 138 points with 10 first-place votes, while North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton had 94 points with six first-place votes.
The winner was announced two days before Montana State faces Illinois State in the national championship game for the FCS, the lower tier of NCAA Division I, at Vanderbilt University’s FirstBank Stadium. Tommy Mellott, who was Montana State’s quarterback at the time, won the award last year.
Brungard is the first Youngstown State player to win the Walter Payton Award, which was first presented in 1987. The 6-foot, 215-pounder from New Middletown, Ohio, completed 277 of 403 passes for 3,230 yards and 26 touchdowns as a junior this season, when he also ran for 1,468 yards and 27 touchdowns on 242 carries.
The Penguins went 8-4 overall and 5-3 in Missouri Valley Football Conference competition during the regular season, and they were one of six MVFC teams to reach the FCS playoffs. Youngstown State was seeded 15th and got a home game in the first round, but the Penguins blew a 35-7 halftime lead in a 43-42 loss to Yale.