Weber State’s Josh Davis Named 2018 Jerry Rice Award Winner
OGDEN, Utah (December 11, 2018) – Weber State running back Josh Davis has been named the STATS FCS Jerry Rice Award winner announced by the organization today.
The award honors the nation’s top freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and was named for the legendary Hall of Fame wide receiver and presented in the postseason to the FCS freshman player of the year since 2011. Davis will receive the award at the STATS FCS Awards Banquet on Jan. 4 in Frisco, Texas – on the eve of the national championship game.
Davis received 165 more points than Incarnate Word quarterback Jon Copeland, who came in second place.
At the conclusion of the regular season, Davis had earned Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors and was the only rookie to be named to the All-Big Sky First Team on either side of the ball. The all-purpose player ranked third in the FCS in all-purpose yards per game (170.00) and sixth in total all-purpose yards (1,700). He had seven games of 100-plus rushing yards and two games with 200-plus with a season-high of 225.
During the playoffs, Davis added 79 rushing yards in the playoff to finish with 1,362 for his freshman campaign. Overall, Davis concluded his rookie season with 1,779 all-purpose yards at an average of 161.1 yards per game.
Fellow Big Sky freshmen Robby Hauck of Montana and Ulonzo Gilliam of UC Davis finished seventh and ninth in voting.
Previous Big Sky Jerry Rice Award winners include Eastern Washington’s Cooper Kupp (2014) and Northern Arizona’s Case Cookus (2015).
A national panel of over 150 sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries voted on the award following the regular season.