And the Payton Winner is...

[BCPanther]

Jayson Foster from Georgia Southern.

Being reported by the Chattanooga Paper...

[panther84]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Just saw that too Too bad for Sanders as I think he deserved it.

I'll give Sanders the "panther84 Award"

[TravelingPanther]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Gsu 7-4.

[JayJ79]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Gsu 7-4.

And Florida was 9-3, but that didn't stop them from giving the Heisman to Tebow. *shrug*

When it comes down to it, they're both individual awards, not team awards. And Sanders played on a great team with balanced offense (and a good defense), that didn't rely on him putting up crazy stats.

Eric has a ton of heart, lots of smarts, and the ability to lead his team to wins. But, none of that shows up on the stats sheet, unfortunately.

Plus, most of the voters were based on the East Coast and or in the South. (since that is where the majority of FCS schools are) And they're probably more familiar with GSU and such.

It would have been nice to see Sanders get the award, but it doesn't surprise me that he didn't.

[Chitown Panther]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

This is off the top of my head..but I think he had a:

Rushing TD of 80+ yards,
Passing TD of 80+ yards,


Set NCAA record for rushing yards by QB....

I still wish Sanders won.

[pthrDIhrd]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Makes no sense to me. Don't make the playoffs, but you are the most valuable person in FCS football.

Voters need to open their eyes a little more. An undefeated regular season and a nation's best passing completion % gets you......second place to a running QB on a non-playoff team.

[BCPanther]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

It's Most Outstanding, not Most Valuable...

If you look at it objectively (which I don't want to do either) Foster is the right choice. I would guess Sanders finished Second.

[BCPanther]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Here is the vote... Sanders did finish Second

2007 Walter Payton Award Voting
Player School 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Total
Jayson Foster Georgia Southern 24 19 3 4 11 224
Eric Sanders Northern Iowa 21 9 5 11 6 184
Josh Johnson San Diego 10 14 11 10 7 166
Omar Cuff Delaware 7 8 15 16 10 154
Ricky Santos New Hampshire 9 10 10 11 14 151
Nick Hill Southern Illinois 9 11 9 5 8 134
Tim Hightower Richmond 6 5 7 6 8 97
Tyler Roehl North Dakota State 2 6 8 7 1 73
Mike McLeod Yale 2 4 7 3 3 56
Kevin Richardson Appalachian State 3 3 6 3 3 54
Terrell Hudgins Elon 0 3 5 9 8 53
Dominic Randolph Holy Cross 2 1 5 3 10 45
Herb Donaldson Western Illinois 4 1 2 5 1 41
Jordan Scott Colgate 2 4 3 2 1 40
Ramses Barden Cal Poly 1 1 3 4 4 30
Liam Coen Massachusetts 0 0 3 2 2 15
*Matt Nicholls Eastern Washington 0 1 0 2 2 10
*Joe Flacco Delaware 0 2 0 0 0 8
*Kerry Brown Appalachian State 0 0 1 1 1 6
*Scott Riddle Elon 1 0 0 0 0 5
*Bryant Lee Southern U 0 1 0 0 0 4
*Chad Rinehart Northern Iowa 0 0 0 0 1 1

[Matt Trump]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Thankfully they didn't give it to Josh Johnson. It was a joke that he was even a finalist.

[9YRPLAN]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

i guess i didnt watch that many of their games, and I know hes a sophomore, but how did armanti edwards not receive any votes?

[unigriff]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

did farley win?

[JayJ79]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

i guess i didnt watch that many of their games, and I know hes a sophomore, but how did armanti edwards not receive any votes?

He wasn't one of the finalists, and no one decided to write him in.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

i guess i didnt watch that many of their games, and I know hes a sophomore, but how did armanti edwards not receive any votes?

He sat out a lot of games.

[primetime21]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Yeah, Sanders had a great year and should have won it on that........but when you look at his career how could they ignore what he has done consistently, game after game after game, over the past 4 years.

[Herdman]

Re: And the Payton Winner is...

Eric Sanders got robbed. I guess the Walter Payton is just as big of joke as the Heisman and the Harlon Hill was this year too.