Courtesy of WKU Athletics
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Football quarterback TJ Finley was named to the 2024 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Preseason Watch List, the Davey O’Brien Foundation announced Thursday.
The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation’s best college quarterback and is the oldest and most prestigious national quarterback award. The list released Thursday includes three dozen of the nation’s top returning college quarterbacks. Compiled by a subset of the Davey O’Brien National Selection Committee, this year’s list was selected based on previous Division I career player performance as well as expectations heading into the 2024 college football season. The preseason list includes 22 seniors, 12 juniors and two sophomores. Finley is one of two players from Conference USA.
Finley is entering his first season at WKU after stops at Texas State, Auburn and LSU. He spent last season with the Bobcats and received All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention, Phil Steele All-Sun Belt Fourth Team, Manning Award Watch List and Davey O’Brien Award Midseason Watch List recognitions. He was named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week after leading Texas State to a victory at Baylor in Week 1, he was a two-time Manning Award Star of the Week and a Davey O’Brien Great 8 selection during the 2023 season as well.
He finished the 2023 season throwing for 3,439 yards and 24 touchdowns to just eight interceptions on 279-of-414 passing while starting all 13 games. He also rushed for 81 yards and five touchdowns. Finley set the Texas State program record for passing yards in a season, finished 17th in the country in passing yards, ranked 23rd in the nation in passing yards per game and passing touchdowns, ranked 16th in the country in completion percentage and was 23rd in passing efficiency. He helped the Bobcats have the 15th-best offense in the country (457.6 yards per game) and the 28th-best passing offense (270.9 yards per game). He led Texas State to its first-ever win over a Power Five team with the victory against Baylor and to the program’s first bowl win with a 45-21 win over Rice in the First Responder Bowl.
Over his three seasons with LSU (2020) and Auburn (2021-22), he started 11 games and appeared in 18. He threw for 2,199 yards and 12 touchdowns to 10 interceptions on 183-of-321 passing and also recorded a pair of rushing touchdowns. He started three games as a sophomore at Auburn in 2022 and appeared in four games, but missed several due to injury. He played in nine games with three starts as a freshman in 2021. In his first college season at LSU in 2020, he started five games and led the Tigers to victories over South Carolina and Arkansas.
Finley has already been included on the Shrine Bowl 1000 Watchlist, the watch list for the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp 2024 Player of the Year Preseason Watch List this summer.
The official Davey O’Brien Midseason Watch List will be released Oct. 22 and will contain active quarterbacks from the Preseason Watch List, players honored as weekly Great 8 recipients through the season’s first eight weeks and any additional quarterbacks approved by the selection subcommittee.
The Midseason Watch List will be cut down to the 35-player Davey O’Brien QB Class of 2024 on Oct. 29. For the fourth straight year, fan voting on social media will earn players bonus selection committee votes during the semifinalist, finalist and winner voting rounds. First-round fan voting will begin Oct. 29 following the QB Class announcement. The list of semifinalists selected from the QB Class will be named on Nov. 12. The Foundation will announce the three finalists two weeks later on Nov. 26. The 2024 Davey O’Brien Award winner will be unveiled live on ESPN on Dec. 12, during The Home Depot College Football Awards.
WKU is scheduled to kick off the 2024 season with a 6 p.m. CT game at Alabama on Saturday, Aug. 31. The Hilltoppers will host Eastern Kentucky for their home opener on Saturday, Sept. 7, at 6 p.m. CT, and will open CUSA play the following week with a 6 p.m. CT game at Middle Tennessee on Saturday, Sept. 14.
Comments