ACU's Scott named top-three finalist for Harlon Hill Award
12/1/2008 6:00:00 AM | Football
FLORENCE, Ala. ? Abilene Christian University running back Bernard Scott and two of the nation's top quarterbacks are the top three vote-getters in balloting for the Harlon Hill Trophy and they have been invited to next week's awards banquet where the winner will be announced.
Scott -- the 2007 runner-up for the award and the favorite to win it entering this season ? is going back to the awards banquet in Florence, Ala., for the second straight season, and he'll be joined this year by North Alabama quarterback A.J. Milwee and Central Washington quarterback Mike Reilly.
National voting concluded on November 29 and the top three finishers have been invited to the Shoals (Alabama) area for the presentation banquet. The winner of the 2008 award, which is presented by the National Harlon Hill Award Committee, will be announced at the Harlon Hill Trophy and Division II Football Hall of Fame Banquet on Friday, Dec. 12, in Florence, prior to the NCAA Division II football championship game on Dec. 13.
Tickets are $50 each or $400 for a table of eight and can be purchased by calling Judy Keenum at the Shoals Chamber of Commerce at (256) 764-4661.
This season Scott rushed for 2,156 yards and 28 touchdowns and caught 47 passes for 826 yards and another six TDs. His play helped the Wildcats to their first perfect regular season (10-0) since 1950 and the program's first outright Lone Star Conference championship since 1973. ACU, which qualified for the NCAA Division II playoffs for the third straight season in 2008, saw its season come to an end on Saturday, Nov. 29, with a 45-36 loss to Northwest Missouri State in the quarterfinal round.
Scott led Division II in scoring (17.0) and all-purpose yards (256.8) and was second in rushing with a 179.7 yard average per game. He averaged more than eight yards per carry and rushed for more than 200 yards in four of his last six games.
He rushed for more than 100 yards in his last 17 straight games dating back to the 2007 season, and he topped the 200-yard mark six times in 25 games as a Wildcat. In ACU's 93-68 playoff victory over West Texas A&M earlier this season, Scott ran for 292 yards and six touchdowns and added 61 yards and one touchdown receiving.
Milwee, a senior from Boaz, Ala., has a 33-4 record as a starting quarterback at North Alabama and has led the Lions to a 12-1 record in 2008 and into this weekend's playoff semifinals. He has thrown for 3,176 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2008 and is ranked fourth nationally in passing efficiency with a 177.3 rating.
He has been picked off just four times in 324 passes this season and his career interception ratio is a remarkable 2.11, or just 21 interceptions in 991 career passes. He accounted for more than 9,000 yards of career total offense at UNA and has 73 career touchdown passes and 18 rushing TDs.
Reilly, a senior from Kalispell, Montana, threw for 3,706 yards and 37 touchdowns this season. He set an NCAA all-division record by throwing at least one touchdown pass in 46 consecutive games. He ranks third in Division II history in both career passing yards (12,448) and career total offense (13,711). He led the Wildcats to a 10-2 record and into the Division II playoffs this fall. He ranks in the top seven in Division II in six offensive categories in 2008.
Other finalists for the 2008 award were junior quarterback Trevor Harris of Edinboro University, junior quarterback Brad Iciek of Grand Valley State University, senior quarterback Corey Russell of Tusculum College, senior quarterback Ted Schlafke of the University of Minnesota-Duluth and senior receiver Michael Washington of West Chester University.
If Scott wins the award, he will join former Texas A&M-Kingsville running back Johnny Bailey as the only award-winners from the Lone Star Conference. Bailey is the only three-time winner of the award having won it three straight years (1987-89). If Millwee wins, he would join linebacker Ronald McKinnon (1995) and quarterback Will Hall (2003) as winners from North Alabama. If Reilly wins, he will become the first player from the Great Northwest Athletics Conference to win the award.
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