Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina redshirt sophomore quarterback
Taron Dickens collected his third postseason All-America recognition on Wednesday, named the first-team quarterback on
the 2025 Stats Perform FCS All-America team.
Dickens was
named second-team All-America at QB on the FCS Football Central All-America team on Monday and was listed as
an honorable mention on The Associated Press All-America team on Tuesday. He adds to his litany of postseason honors, which also includes the Roy M. "Legs" Hawley Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-SoCon from the league's head coaches.
Dickens is also
one of the three finalists for the 39th annual Walter Payton Award, invited to the awards ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 3, at the historic Woolworth Theatre in Nashville, Tenn. He is the first Catamount football player to be invited to the national ceremony. Joining him on the first-team All-America offense are Youngstown State QB Beau Brungard and North Dakota State QB Cole Payton.
The SoCon was again well represented on the Stats Perform FCS All-America squad as defensive linemen Joshua Stoneking of Furman and Mercer's Andrew Zock – two-thirds of the Buck Buchanan Awards finalists – and Wofford defensive back Maximus Pulley joined Dickens on the first team. VMI punter Ben Shrewsbury landed on the second team, with Mercer freshman QB Braden Atkinson and Furman OL Luke Petit earning third-team honors.
Atkinson, the Jerry Rice Award winner, was additionally named to the Stats Perform Freshman All-America squad with Furman WR Evan James and OL Brady Pickett from The Citadel on offense. Mercer freshman defensive lineman Kobe McInnis and Wofford's Darius Malcolm Jr. were both selected to the Freshman All-America defense.
Dickens is the 12th Catamount to earn All-America honors from Stats Perform FCS, and its predecessor, The Sports Network. He joins Catamount greats
Geno Segers (1st team, 1988),
Todd Harkins (2nd team, 1992),
Kerry Hayes (1993),
Eric Johnson (1997, 1998),
Ken Hinsley (3rd team, 1998),
Eddie Cohen (2nd team, 2007),
Adrian McLeod (2nd team, 2009),
Christon Gill (3rd team, 2014),
Detrez Newsome (2nd team, 2016; 1st team, 2017),
Tyrie Adams (2nd team, 2018), and most recently,
Richard McCollum (3rd team, 2023).
Dickens led the NCAA FCS through the regular season in five of the top offensive categories in 2025 despite playing in just nine games. He threw for a regular-season best and school-record 3,508 yards – the 10th best passing season in the SoCon – and led the country in passing yards per game (389.8), completion percentage (74.2), total offensive yards per game (425.4), and touchdown passes with a school and SoCon single-season record 38 scores. Dickens eclipsed the previous league benchmark of 36 TD passes held by former Samford QBs Michael Hiers (2022) and Devlin "Duck" Hodges (2016), and broke the school record held by
Cole Gonzales (28, 2023).
Over his nine games, Dickens eclipsed the 300-yard passing mark seven times, surpassing 400 yards four times with a pair of 500-yard passing efforts. He accounted for four of the Top 13 individual passing games in the NCAA FCS during the regular season, including 582 yards in his season debut against league-foe Samford – the second-most passing yards in a game in program and SoCon history. He also threw for 551 yards against No. 10 Mercer, 427 yards on the road at Campbell, and tallied 426 passing yards against ETSU.
Dickens also set an NCAA football record by completing his first 46 consecutive passes in the road win at Wofford, running his two-game consecutive tally to 50 straight, including the final four passes from the road win at Campbell. Overall, Dickens finished 271-of-365 passing with just two interceptions, one coming on an end-of-half heave to the endzone.
A product of Miami, Fla., Dickens was a three-time SoCon Offensive Player of the Week and recognized by the Stats Perform FCS staff five times, including being named the NCAA FCS National Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 6, with four honorable mentions.
Through 18 career games, Dickens threw for 5,603 yards with 51 touchdowns to rank tied for second in the school's record books. He added 371 career rushing yards with three scores on the ground.
The Stats Perform FCS All-America team has 111 players across three teams, representing all 13 FCS leagues and 58 schools. North Dakota State has the most selections with seven, followed by Montana State and Stephen F. Austin with five each.
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