Cullowhee, N.C. – One of three national finalists for the 2025 Walter Payton Award, presented by Stats Perform FCS, Western Carolina redshirt sophomore quarterback Taron Dickens was today named to the 2025 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) All-America team. Dickens was the second-team selection at quarterback after playing in nine of the team's 12 seasonal games, yet still composing a record-breaking season offensively.
 
The honor is the fourth All-America tally for Dickens this postseason, collecting second-team plaudits from FCS Football Central on Monday, an honorable mention from The Associated Press on Tuesday, and a first-team nod from Stats Perform FCS on Wednesday.
 
The Southern Conference's Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-SoCon selection, Dickens led the NCAA FCS in passing yards at the end of the regular season with (3,508), passing yards per game (389.8), pass completion percentage (74.2), touchdown passes (38), and total offense per game (425.4) despite playing three fewer games than most other QBs nationally.
 
The first Catamount player to be invited to the FCS national awards ceremony, Dickens will be joined in Nashville, Tenn., on Sat., Jan. 3, for the national awards ceremony by Youngstown State QB Beau Brungard, who was the AFCA first-team All-America selection, and QB Cole Payton from North Dakota State. He has already secured WCU's best-ever finish in the voting for the award affectionally known as the NCAA FCS Heisman.
 
All told, Dickens is the 42nd Catamount football player all-time to collect postseason All-America honors from one of the numerous outlets to award teams over the years. He is just the ninth Catamount to collect honors from the coaches through the AFCA – and just the seventh since WCU went NCAA Division I in 1976. Dickens joins Mark Ferguson (1973), Jerry Gaines (1974), Louis Cooper (1984), Kerry Hayes (1993), Eric Johnson (1998), Detrez Newsome (2016 & 2017), Marvin Tillman (2017), and Tyler Smith (2023) to each earn
 
A product of Miami, Fla., Dickens set the WCU single-season records for passing, eclipsing Jeff Gilbert's mark of 2,993 yards on 267 completions with 3,508 yards on 271 completions, all in just nine starts. His seasonal passing total marked the 10th-best in SoCon history. He additionally obliterated the program's single-season passing TD mark by 10 with a SoCon single-season record 38 scores, over the previous program benchmark of 28 by Cole Gonzales in 2023 and the league-record of 36 held previously by both Michael Hiers (2022) and Devlin Hodges (2016) from Samford.
 
A three-time SoCon Offensive Player of the Week and recognized by Stats Perform FCS five times, including being named NCAA FCS National Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 6, Dickens amassed a school-record 3,829 yards of total offense over 462 plays between his nine starts. He averaged an NCAA-best at all levels 425.4 yards per game, one of just two QBs nationally to finish the regular season above the 400-yard per game mark.
 
Dickens eclipsed the 300-yard passing mark seven times in his nine games, 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 426 passing yards against ETSU.


 
About the AFCA All-America Team: The five teams now chosen for each AFCA division evolved from a single 11-player squad. From 1945 until 1967, only one team was chosen. From 1967 through 1971, two teams, a University Division and a College Division, were selected. In 1972, the College Division was split into College I and College II. In 1979, the University Division was split into two teams — Division I-A and Division I-AA. In 1996, the College I and College II teams were renamed Division II and Division III, respectively. In 2006, the Division I-A and Division I-AA teams were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), respectively. In 2006, the AFCA started selecting an NAIA-only team. The AFCA added a second team in 2016.

From 1965-81, a 22-player (11 offensive, 11 defensive) team was chosen. In 1982, a punter and placekicker were added to the team. A return specialist was added in 1997. The return specialist position was replaced by an all-purpose player in 2006. AFCA added a third wide receiver in 2024.

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