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VANCOUVER – The race for the top Canadian player in the NCAA is down to the final vote. Five Canadian athletes are on the final ballot for the sixth Jon Cornish Trophy as selected by a panel of voters across Canada. Representing the Bobcats is redshirt junior quarterback Kurtis Rourke.
The patrons have awarded previous Cornish Trophy presentations before the CFL and NFL Drafts. This year, the decision was made to place the award at the end of the college football season, before postseason competition.
All finalists list their home as the province of Ontario, which is a first. Along with Rourke (Oakville, Ontario, Canada), junior running back Chase Brown (Illinois), senior defensive lineman Tavius Robinson, senior defensive lineman (Ole Miss), senior wide receiver Jared Wayne (Pitt) and senior defensive back Sydney Brown (Illinois) were all named finalists.
The Mid-American Conference player of the year in 2022 was Ohio Jr. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke of Oakville, Ontario. He was fifth in the nation in passing until sustaining a knee injury in Ohio's second to last game, finishing with 3,256 yards passing, good for 20th in the NCAA.
• Recognition: Selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Mid-American Conference … Was selected the MAC Offensive Player of the Year…. MAC First-team all-conference QB… Guided the Bobcats to their first appearance in the MAC Championship since 2016…
• Superlatives: Completed 69.1 percent of his passes for 3,257 yards, 25 touchdowns, and four interceptions. He also ran the ball 74 times for 245 yards and four touchdowns. The Ohio Bobcats went 8-3 with him as the starter… He broke the Ohio school record for passing yards in a game which stood since 1983, as he went 41-of-50 for 537 yards and four touchdowns… He threw for 300 or more yards six times in 2022…
PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE CORNISH TROPHY:
2021 - John Metchie III, Jr. – WR, Brampton, ON/Alabama
2020 - John Metchie III, Jr. – WR, Brampton, ON/Alabama
2019 - Chuba Hubbard, Jr. – RB, Sherwood Park, AB/Oklahoma State
2018 - Nathan Rourke, RS-Jr. – QB, Oakville, ON/Ohio
2017 - Nathan Rourke, RS.-So. – QB, Oakville, ON/Ohio
ABOUT FOOTBALL CANADA: Established in 1880 and reconstituted in 1884, Football Canada is the national governing body of amateur football in Canada and a proud member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). Working closely with the provincial football associations, we develop programs and resources for players, coaches, and officials in the three disciplines of Tackle, Flag and Touch Football. Football Canada's vision statement is "from playground to stadium," where players can participate in the game of football throughout a lifetime recreationally, competitively and internationally.
ABOUT THE CORNISH TROPHY: The Jon Cornish Trophy is awarded annually to the Canadian student-athlete who has been the most outstanding player in NCAA Football. It is awarded by voters consisting of Canadian journalists, player personnel evaluators from the Canadian Football League, former NCAA players connected to Canada and the panellists from the TSN Krown Gridiron Nation TV programs. The award is named after Jon Cornish, a former high school football player from British Columbia who was a college standout running back at the University of Kansas. Cornish later went on to win three Most Outstanding Canadian awards and a 2013 Most Outstanding Player award in the CFL as a member of the Calgary Stampeders. His 2013 season was capped off with winning the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete. The award has been presented since 2017. The trophy is presented at and in conjunction with the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario, on an annual basis and is on permanent display there.
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