Nashville, Tenn. – Representing Western Carolina University on the biggest awards stage that sets the table for Monday night's NCAA Football Championship Subdivision National Championship game, Catamount redshirt sophomore quarterback Taron Dickens finished as the national runner-up for the 2025 Walter Payton Award, unveiled Saturday night at the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Show from the historic Woolworth Theatre just off Broadway.
 
Youngstown State dual-threat quarterback Beau Brungard received the 39th annual Walter Payton Award as the national offensive player of the year in FCS college football.
 
Brungard, who announced that he is returning to YSU next fall, outdistanced two other quarterbacks, runner-up Dickens and Cole Payton of North Dakota State, in voting for the Payton Award – affectionately known as the Heisman of the FCS. There were 30 finalists from all 13 conferences. All three standouts were named to the Stats Perform FCS All-America First-Team.
 
Dickens recorded the second-most, first-place votes with 10 against the 28 posted by Brungard, and led the field with a dozen votes for second in the overall voting. His second-place finish was the best-ever by a Catamount in any of the NCAA FCS National Awards.
 
Dickens was joined at the awards program by his mother, Tammye Holden, and godfather, Adonis Davis, as well as his older brother Torrence Dickens Jr., and sister, Tehya Dickens. Representing Catamount Athletics at the prestigious event were Director of Athletics Kyle Pifer, head coach Kerwin Bell, and his wife Cosette; quarterbacks coach Corey Headley; Director of Football Operations, Todd Shealy, and his wife, Beth; and Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations, Daniel Hooker.
 
Despite playing in just nine of the team's 12 games in 2025, Dickens led the NCAA FCS in passing yards per game (389.8), completion percentage (74.2%), total offensive yards per game (425.4), and touchdown passes (38). WCU posted a 7-2 record with Dickens at the helm, including six-straight victories once he entered the lineup, accounting for 582 passing yards in his debut against league-foe Samford – the second-most passing yards in a game in program and SoCon history.
 
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. He also threw for 551 yards against No. 10 Mercer, 427 yards on the road at Campbell, and 426 passing yards against ETSU.
 
The Southern Conference's Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-SoCon selection, Dickens set an NCAA all-divisions record by completing 46 straight passes to begin a game against Wofford, adding the final four connections in the road win at Campbell, also to hold the multi-game record at 50 consecutive completions.
 
A product of Miami, Fla., Dickens was honored on five postseason All-America teams, collecting second-team All-America honors from both FCS Football Central and the AFCA, was a first-team honoree by Stats Perform FCS, third-team All-America from Phil Steele, and collected an honorable mention from The Associated Press.
 
The Payton Award is named for legendary running back Walter Payton, who starred at Jackson State as part of his Hall of Fame career. Its past recipients include Steve McNair, Tony Romo, Brian Westbrook, Taylor Heinicke, Jimmy Garoppolo, Cooper Kupp, and Trey Lance.
 
Eddie Payton, Walter's older brother, presented the 2025 award to Brungard.
 
A combined six award recipients were honored on Saturday night, including the 11th Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award winner, Montana center Dillon Botner – an award for which WCU's Micah Nelson was one of the 13 national finalists. Alabama State QB Andrew Body was honored as the second recipient of the HBCU National Player of the Year. Lehigh head coach Kevin Cahill received the Eddie Robinson Award, guiding the Mountain Hawks to a 12-0 regular-season record and a second-straight Patriot League championship.
 
Mercer quarterback Braden Atkinson received the Jerry Rice Award, tops of the 25 national finalists, and the SoCon's first-ever NCAA FCS rookie of the year recipient. His defensive teammate, Andrew Zock, won the Buck Buchanan Award, presented by Georgia Buchanan, widow of Junious "Buck" Buchanan, and former winner, Jared Allen.
 
2025 Walter Payton Award Voting:
Following is a breakdown of the voting results. A first-place vote was worth five points, a second-place vote four points, a third-place vote three points, a fourth-place vote two points, and a fifth-place vote one point. The final number is the combined point total.
 
1. Beau Brungard, QB, Youngstown State: 28-7-3-0-0 = 177
2. Taron Dickens, QB, Western Carolina: 10-12-8-6-4 = 138
3. Cole Payton, QB, North Dakota State: 6-10-4-4-4 = 94
4. Joshua Dye, RB, Southern Utah: 1-6-11-12-6 = 92
5. Braden Atkinson, QB, Mercer: 2-5-1-5-5 = 48
6. Rodney Nelson, RB, Monmouth: 1-4-2-6-5 = 44
7. Justin Lamson, QB, Montana State: 1-2-7-1-4 = 40
8. DJ Williams, QB, Southern Illinois: 1-2-4-4-1 = 34
9. Keali'I Ah Yat, QB, Montana: 0-1-6-2-4 = 30
10. Chris Parson, QB, Austin Peay: 1-2-1-2-3 = 23
11. Luke Yoder, RB, Lehigh: 1-0-4-2-0 = 21
12 Bryce Lance, WR, North Dakota State: 0-2-0-2-3 = 15
13. Kekoa Visperas, QB, Tennessee Tech: 2-0-1-0-1 = 14
14. Marquis Gillis, RB, Delaware State: 0-2-0-1-0 = 10
15. Kente Edwards, RB, Lafayette: 1-0-0-1-1 = 8
T16. Andrew Body, QB, Alabama State: 0-1-0-1-1 = 7
T16. L.J. Phillips Jr., RB, South Dakota: 0-0-1-1-2 = 7
T18. Joey Isabella, WR, Duquesne: 0-0-1-1-1 = 6
T18. Marquise Buchanan, WR, Rhode Island: 0-0-1-1-1 = 6
T18. Michael Wortham, WR, Montana: 0-0-0-2-2 = 6
T21. Collin Hurst, QB, Presbyterian: 0-0-1-0-2 = 5
T21. Walker Harris, QB, North Carolina Central: 1-0-0-0-0 = 5
T23. Devin Farrell, QB, Rhode Island: 0-0-0-1-1 = 3
T23. Jared Richardson, WR, Penn: 0-0-0-1-1 = 3
T25. Eddie Lee Marburger, QB, UT Rio Grande Valley: 0-0-0-0-1 = 1
T25. Jaden Craig, QB, Harvard: 0-0-0-0-1 = 1
T25. Josh Pitsenberger, RB, Yale: 0-0-0-0-1 = 1
T25. Victor Gabalis, QB, Tarleton State: 0-0-0-0-1 = 1
T29. Elijah Howard, RB, Central Connecticut State: 0-0-0-0-0 = 0
T29. Rodney Hammond Jr., RB, Sacramento State: 0-0-0-0-0 = 0