September has passed, and some FCS teams played as many as five games during the first stretch of the season. So if the season ended now, which candidates would lead the voting for this level's top four awards — Walter Payton Award (top offensive player), Buck Buchanan Award (top defensive player), Jerry Rice Award (top freshman) and the Eddie Robinson Award (best coaching job)? Our panel of nine tuned-in voters put together a ballot and ranked the candidates 1 through 5. Here, we highlight the Jerry Rice Award leader.
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Even with several great candidates, it was hard to ignore the job Josh Davis has done at Weber State. His team needed some new names to emerge to propel the Wildcats back to the pedestal it was last year, when it broke a school record for wins. The redshirt freshman is second in the national rankings in all-purpose yardage (219.3 per game), and he's rushed for his 499 yards and 4 TDs in just three games — and he's averaging more than 17 yards per punt return. His top competitor for the award was Albany's Dev Holmes, who also is putting up impressive receiving numbers.
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THE RESULTS
| JERRY RICE AWARD (Top Freshman) | |
| Josh Davis, Weber State, RB | 40 (7) |
| Dev Holmes, Albany, WR | 31 (1) |
| Jon Copeland, Incarnate Word, QB | 18 |
| Robby Hauck, Montana, DB | 15 (1) |
| Quay Holmes, ETSU, RB | 13 |
| Demetrius Pettway, Kennesaw, LB | 10 |
| Malik Hamm, Lafayette, DL | 4 |
| Ferlando Jordan, SE Louisiana, DB | 2 |
| Caleb Snead, Campbell, WR | 1 |
| Christian Benford, Villanova, DB | 1 |
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THE OTHERS
The Walter Payton Award (Results)
The Buck Buchanan Award (Results)
The Jerry Rice Award (Results)
The Eddie Robinson Award (Results)
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THE FAN VOTES
The Walter Payton Award (Vote Here!)
The Buck Buchanan Award (Vote Here!)
The Jerry Rice Award (Vote Here!)
The Eddie Robinson Award (Vote Here)
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Thank you to the following panelists for the media vote: Chris Brown, HERO Sports Campus Correspondent (Jacksonville State); Caleb Rux, HERO Sports Campus Correspondent (Montana State); Dave Thomas, ESPN Harrisonburg (Va.); Anthony Nachreiner, KGEZ in Kalispell, Mont., Keith Brake, Bison1660 in Fargo, N.D. and HERO Sports staff members Ben Fox, Chase Kiddy, Sam Herder and Brian McLaughlin.
