The countdown to the 2018 college football season is on. Four FCS teams are in action Aug. 25 as Duquesne takes on UMass, Prairie View faces Rice and North Carolina A&T and Jacksonville State square off in ESPN’s FCS Kickoff.
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HERO Sports is coutning down each day by highlighting the best player in FCS football who wears the jersey number of the number of days to kickoff. You can find the running list of top players here.
*Note: Jersey numbers are from the 2017 season.
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12: Easton Stick, Senior Quarterback — North Dakota State
Perhaps you've heard of our candidate for the best No. 12 in FCS Football. He was last seen winning the "Most Outstanding Player" Award in the 2018 FCS National Championship Game.
Easton Stick is a well-known commodity in FCS Football. The boy who came in to replace an injured Carson Wentz as a redshirt freshman in 2015 is now a fifth-year senior, deftly leading an NDSU offense that continues to be overlooked and underrated.
If you don't know who Stick is, then let me be among the first to congratulate you on waking from that coma that you've clearly been in for the last few years.
Stick's resume is arguably more impressive than that of the team that he plays for. The two-year MVFC Honorable Mention candidate will be a team captain for a third consecutive season in 2017; he also won both the CFPA National Performer of the Year and the MVFC President's Council Academic Award. And not for nothing, but he was our Preseason Second-Team All-American, too.
Partially because of his exalted status behind Wentz, Stick's draft stock has been steadily rising over the past year. Although many draft experts have him pegged as an early Day 3 guy, his NDSU pedigree could potentially boost him up into the third round.
Now entering his third year as the Bison starter, Easton Stick has a chance to lead the best North Dakota State team of the last decade. That says a lot about the stockpile of talent in Fargo, but it's also a major statement about Stick.
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FCS Kickoff Countdown: The Best Player in FCS Who Wears Each Number, 1-99
CFB Countdown: The Best Player in FBS Football, 1-99
