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It’s been a banner kind of week for Logan Woodside, the senior signal caller for the Toledo Rockets. After being named to the watch lists of the Maxwell Award, the Unitas Award, and the O’Brien Award, he’s now been named to the College Football Performance Awards preseason watch list for National Performer of the Year.
If you’re a Toledo fan, that’s great news. For the rest of the conference, it signals that the road to Detroit may very well run through the Glass Bowl and through the Rockets. History has shown that Mid-American Conference teams with standout quarterbacks tend to do a bit well. See: Zach Terrell, Nate Davis, Cooper Rush, Matt Johnson, and the bevy of NIU QBs that seemed to come one after the other. Obviously there’s a lot of football between now and December, but give me a senior QB with a talented offense and I’ll take my chances.
Per Toledo’s release:
Toledo senior quarterback Logan Woodside was named to the 2017 College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) preseason watch list for National Performer of the Year. Woodside is one of 36 players on the list, and the only one from the Mid-American Conference.
Woodside was previously named to the official watch lists for the Maxwell Award, which is given to the nation's player of the year; the Davey O'Brien Award, which honors the nation's top quarterback; and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, presented annually to the quarterback who accomplishes the most on and off the field.
Woodside shattered nearly every Toledo passing record in the books in 2016. He led the nation with 45 touchdown passes, 16 more than the previous best in Rocket history. He connected on 69.1 percent of his passes for 4,129 yards, an average of more than 317 yards per contest and another school record. He earned first-team All-MAC honors and was named a contender for the Heisman Trophy by the Heisman Trophy Trust. He graduated with a 3.4 grade point average in marketing last December, and is currently working on his MBA.
The 2017 CFPA National Performer of the Year Trophy is a 22-inch K-9 optic crystal tower with eight-inch crystal football on top. All FBS players are eligible for the award. The award winner will be announced Jan. 10, 2018.
When you’re named to a national award list in July, it is often times seen as a sort of meaningless thing. I’d argue that considering he is one of only 36 players on the list and the only one from the MAC to showcase just how impressive it is. Good luck to Logan and let’s get some MACtion going on for the CFPA!