Heinicke wins Dudley Award

RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) - Old Dominion University sophomore quarterback Taylor Heinicke was named the 2012 Dudley Award winner, the Touchdown Club of Richmond announced Wednesday night at a banquet sponsored by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 

Heinicke is just the third FCS player to win the award, joining Richmond’s Marc Megna in 1998 and James Madison’s Rodney Landers in 2008.

The award, named for Bill Dudley, star player at the University of Virginia and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, goes to the top player in Division I football — Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision — in the state.

Heinicke, the unanimous pick, was also selected as the top Division I Offensive Back .

Heinicke leads the FCS in passing yards, passing yards per game, total offense, points responsible for and touchdown passes and also has 422 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns.

A native of Atlanta, Ga., Heinicke has completed 367-of-535 passes for 4,655 yards.  He is just 209 yards away from breaking Steve McNair’s single-season FCS record for passing yards.  McNair threw for 4,863 yards for Alcorn State in 1994.  Heinicke is also second behind McNair for total offensive yards in a season with 5,077.  McNair had 5,799 yards of total offense in that 1994 season.

The sophomore quarterback is just 19 completions away from breaking Brett Gordon’s record of 385 he set in 2002 for Villanova.  His 41 TD passes is tied for seventh and his 51 total touchdowns his fourth in a single-season.

Heinicke has thrown for 300 yards or more eight times and three or more TD passes eight times this season, including at least four touchdown passes in the last three games.

Last week, Heinicke was named one of three finalists invited to Philadelphia for the Walter Payton Award given to the top player in the FCS.  He was named the CAA Offensive Player of the Year and All-CAA First-Team quarterback.

In the Monarchs’ 63-35 second round playoff victory over Coastal Carolina, Heinicke threw for 497 yards and tied an FCS playoff single-game record with six TD passes.  He broke the FCS playoff record with 542 yards of total offense.

Old Dominion hosts Georgia Southern on Saturday, Dec. 8 at noon.  The game will be televised on ESPN.

Virginia Division I Players of the Year:

• Offensive Back:  Taylor Heinicke, Old Dominion
• End/Wide Receiver:  Ben Edwards, Richmond
• Offensive Lineman:  Oday Aboushi, Virginia
• Defensive Back:  Cooper Taylor, Richmond
• Linebacker:  Steve Greer, Virginia
• Defensive Lineman: Derrick Hopkins, Virginia Tech
• Special Teams: B.W. Webb, William & Mary