PHILADELPHA - Temple junior quarterback Walter Washington has been named the Big East Conference 2004 Player of the Year by CollegeFootballNews.com. The Fox Sports-affiliated web site, which also cited Washington as the best player in the league regardless of position, named both he and junior linebacker Rian "Goo" Wallace to its All-Big East First Team.
Washington, who received the Owl Award as Temple's Most Valuable Player in voting conducted among his teammates, was also named to the All-Big East Conference Second Team in a vote by the league's head coaches. He is the second Temple signal-caller to earn All-Big East honors after Burris' selection in 1994.
Washington was the top scorer among Division I-A quarterbacks with 92 points (8.36 avg.) and led the nation in rushing touchdowns by a signal-caller with 15, setting the Big East record for a quarterback and tying the Temple mark for total scores in a season (Paul Palmer; 1986).
Washington led the Big East with 3,096 total yards (281.5 avg.), to become Temple's first 3,000-yard player. He bettered the school's previous mark for total offense (2,577) set by Henry Burris in 1994 by 519 yards. He set a Big East and Temple record for yards rushing by a quarterback in a season with 889 net yards (1,104 total) and was responsible for the Owls' final 16 touchdowns, while accounting for 25 of 29 (86%) overall. Washington led the Big East and ranked 11th nationally in total offense (281.5), 20th in point responsibility (13.82) and 21st in scoring. He set the Big East and Temple record for total plays with 554. His 2,207 passing yards ranks second and 889 rushing yards is 10th in Temple's single season annals.
Wallace was named to the All-Big East Conference First Team by the coaches. A repeat selection after earning second team honors in 2003, he became the fourth Temple player since 1991 to earn multiple citations on the All-Big East squad, joining former DT Dan Klecko, LB Lance Johnstone and OT Tre Johnson. Wallace made 101 total tackles (10.1 avg.) this season to rank second in the Big East and 21st nationally in stops. He made double-digit tackles in six games and seven or more in all 10 contests he played.
On the 2004 Watch Lists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, Dick Butkus Award and Rotary Lombardi Award, Wallace was a CollegeFootballNews.com First Team Preseason All-American, as well as a Third Team Preseason All-American according to both Athlon Sports and Street & Smith's. He ranks eighth on Temple's career tackle chart with 325 total stops in 34 games.
The CFN.com award is the second of the postseason for Wallace on the information superhighway. He is also a First Team All-Big East selection according to ESPN.com.
