Long-time national finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Slippery Rock University quarterback Brayden Long was named Wednesday as one of eight national finalists for the 2024 Harlon Hill Trophy, awarded to the NCAA Division II football player of the year.

Long, a senior from Hanover, Pennsylvania, becomes the only two-time finalist in Slippery Rock program history after also being a finalist for the 2023 award, where he placed fifth in national voting.

The eight finalists include two honorees from each of the four NCAA super regions, with Long and Charleston running back Chavon Wright representing Super Region One following regional voting among sports communications professionals in the region.

Long is one of four finalists who are two-time honorees and one of three finalists who are repeat honorees as of 2023. He joins fellow quarterbacks Valdosta State’s Sammy Edwards and Central Missouri’s Zach Zebrowski, the 2023 honoree, as last year’s back-to-back finalists and Virginia Union running back Jada Byers as two-time honorees after Byers’ 2022 honoree was a finalist.

Other finalists this year include Ferris State quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, Colorado State-Pueblo wide receiver Reggie Retzlaff and Angelo State quarterback Braeden Fuller, joining Wright as first-time finalists.

Seven of the eight finalists led their teams to the NCAA playoff spots this year and four will lead their teams to the quarterfinals this week: Long, Byers, Edwards and Chambliss.

Long gives Slippery Rock its seventh finalist in program history and fifth since 2017. He is the first player on The Rock to ever be a finalist twice, joining other former finalists Greg Paterra (1998), Randy McKavish (2000), Marcus Martin (2017), Roland Rivers III (2019) and Henry Litwin (2021). Rivers is the only SRU player in program history to win the Harlon Hill Trophy in 2019.

This fall as captain of the Rock, Long posted the third-best record in the country at 11-1 and reached the national quarterfinals for the second straight year. He ranks ninth nationally in passing yards with 2,918 yards and has an impeccable touchdown-to-interception ratio of 22 to 4. Long has also rushed for a team-high six touchdowns, accounting for 28 of the team’s 42 total touchdowns this season year corresponds.

Long is the most accurate passer in program history and has a career completion rate of 67 percent. This ranks him second among all active passers in Division II. He also holds the SRU all-time completions record (587), despite having only played a total of 27 games as the starting QB. Long ranks third all-time at SRU in attempts (876), fourth in passing yards (6,975), fourth in passing TD (58) and fourth in total offense (7,065). He enters this weekend needing 82 passing yards to become the first QB in program history with two 3,000-yard seasons, and he’s just 25 yards away from becoming the fourth player in program history with 7,000 career passing yards to become. Long has accounted for 69 total touchdowns and has only thrown a total of 10 interceptions on 876 attempts in his career.

After leading the Rock to a 25-24 overtime win last week on the road at unbeaten No. 1 seed Kutztown, Long improved to 23-4 as the starting QB, including 4-1 in NCAA playoff games . He has now beaten every team he has faced at least once in his career.

In addition to his excellence on the field, Long is also one of the best student-athletes in the country when it comes to his work in the classroom. A 2024 SRU graduate with a perfect 4.0 grade point average as a sports management major, Long is the most decorated active soccer player in the country when it comes to academic honors. Next week in Las Vegas, he will be named a national finalist for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy, college football’s highest academic honor. He is the only Division II player among the 16 finalists this year and will share the stage in Vegas with major college stars like Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart, among others.

Long’s list of academic honors includes 2023 Academic All-America selection, 2023-24 PSAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award and 2023-24 D2CCA Atlantic Region Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. 24. He was the only soccer player in the country to be named regional athlete-athlete of the year in 2023-24. Long was also named as one of the recipients of the NCAA Division II 50th Anniversary Scholarship last year.

On the field, Long is a two-time All-PSAC honoree who was the 2023 PSAC West and Super Region One Offensive Athlete of the Year. He was named All-America honors by the Don Hansen Football Gazette and D2football.com for the 2023 season and was named to the D2football.com Preseason Elite 100 Watch List to be released this fall.

Sportswriters across the country will be voting for the Harlon Hill Trophy this week. The winner will be announced on Friday, December 20th, one day before the National Championship game.

The Hill Trophy is named after the late Harlon Hill, a former University of North Alabama standout who excelled with the Detroit Lions from 1950 to 1953 before finding fame in the National Football League with the Chicago Bears. The award is presented annually by the Little Rock Touchdown Club and the Great American Conference.

2024 HARLON HILL TROPHY FINALISTS
Brayden LongQB, Slippery Rock
Chavon Wright, RB, Charleston
Jada Byers, RB, Virginia Union
Sammy Edwards, QB, Valdosta State
Zach Zebrowski, QB, Central Missouri
Trinidad Chambliss, QB, Ferris State
Reggie Retzlaff, WR, Colorado State-Pueblo
Braeden Fuller, QB, Angelo State

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