LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Slippery Rock University quarterback Brayden Long was named Wednesday as one of the eight national finalists for the 2024 Harlon Hill Trophy that is presented to the NCAA Division II Football Player of the Year.
 
Long, a senior from Hanover, Pennsylvania, becomes the only two-time finalist in Slippery Rock program history after he was also a finalist for the 2023 honor, where he finished fifth in the national voting.
 
The eight finalists include two honorees from each of the four NCAA Super Regions with Long and Charleston running back Chavon Wright representing Super Region One after regional voting among the athletic communication professionals in the region.
 
Long is one of four finalists that are two-time honorees and is one of three finalists that are repeat honorees from 2023. He joins fellow quarterbacks Sammy Edwards from Valdosta State and Zach Zebrowski from Central Missouri, the 2023 award winner, as back-to-back finalists from last year and running back Jada Byers from Virginia Union as two-time honorees after Byers was a finalist in 2022.
 
The other finalists this year include Ferris State quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, Colorado State-Pueblo wide receiver Reggie Retzlaff and Angelo State quarterback Braeden Fuller, who join Wright as first-time finalists.
 
Seven of the eight finalists led their team to NCAA Playoff berths this year and four will guide their teams into the quarterfinals this week: Long, Byers, Edwards and Chambliss.
 
Long gives Slippery Rock its seventh finalist in program history and its fifth since 2017. He becomes the first player at The Rock to ever be a finalist twice and joins other former finalists Greg Paterra (1998), Randy McKavish (2000), Marcus Martin (2017), Roland Rivers III (2019) and Henry Litwin (2021). Rivers is the lone SRU player in program history to win the Harlon Hill Trophy when he claimed the honor in 2019.
 
This fall, Long has captained The Rock to the third-best record in the country at 11-1 and a second straight trip to the national quarterfinals. He ranks ninth in the nation in passing yards with 2,918 yards and has an impeccable touchdown to interception ratio of 22-to-4. Long has also rushed for a team-high six touchdowns to account for 28 of the team's 42 total touchdowns on the year.
 
The most accurate passer in program history, Long owns a career completion percentage of 67 percent to rank second among all active passers in Division II. He also owns the SRU all-time record for completions (587) despite playing just 27 total games as the starting QB. Long ranks third all-time at SRU in attempts (876), fourth in passing yards (6,975), fourth in passing TD (58) and fourth in total offense (7,065). He enters this weekend needing 82 passing yards to become the first QB in program history with two 3,000-yard seasons and he is just 25 yards shy of becoming the fourth player in program history with 7,000 career passing yards. Long has accounted for 69 total touchdowns and has thrown just 10 total interceptions on 876 attempts in his career.
 
After leading The Rock to a 25-24 overtime win on the road at undefeated No. 1 seed Kutztown last week, Long improved to 23-4 as the starting QB, including 4-1 in NCAA Playoff games. He has now beaten every team he has faced at least once in his career.
 
In addition to his excellence on the field, Long is also one of the top student-athletes in the country when it comes to his work in the classroom. A 2024 SRU graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA as a sport management major, Long is the most decorated active football player in the country when it comes to academic honors. Next week, he will be recognized in Las Vegas as a national finalist for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy, the top scholar award in college football. He is the only Division II player to be one of the 16 finalists this year and will share the stage in Vegas with major college stars like Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart, among others.
 
Long's list of academic awards includes a 2023 Academic All-America selection, the 2023-24 PSAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award and the 2023-24 D2CCA Atlantic Region Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor. He was the only football player in the country to be recognized as a regional Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2023-24. Long was also named as one of the NCAA Division II 50th Anniversary Scholarship recipients last year.
 
On the field, Long is a two-time All-PSAC honoree that was the PSAC West and Super Region One Offensive Athlete of the Year in 2023. He was named to All-America honors by the Don Hansen Football Gazette and D2football.com following the 2023 season and was a named to the D2football.com Preseason Elite 100 Watch List entering this fall.
 
Athletic communicators across the country will vote for the Harlon Hill Trophy this week with the winner set to be announced Friday, Dec. 20 on the day before the National Championship game.
 
The Hill Trophy is named for the late Harlon Hill - a former University of North Alabama standout who excelled with the Detroit Lions from 1950-53 before going on to fame in the National Football League with the Chicago Bears. The award is presented annually by the Little Rock Touchdown Club and the Great American Conference.
 
2024 HARLON HILL TROPHY FINALISTS
Brayden Long, QB, Slippery Rock
Chavon Wright, RB, Charleston
Jada Byers, RB, Virginia Union
Sammy Edwards, QB, Valdosta State
Zach Zebrowski, QB, Central Missouri
Trinidad Chambliss, QB, Ferris State
Reggie Retzlaff, WR, Colorado State-Pueblo
Braeden Fuller, QB, Angelo State
 

 
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