The Jerry Rice Award, in its 15th anniversary season, honors the national freshman player of the year in FCS football. Mercer’s Braden Atkinson is the 2025 recipient out of 25 finalists.
Mercer quarterback Braden Atkinson won the marathon of the regular season, but he did it with a sprint past the other freshmen in FCS college football.
Atkinson is the 2025 recipient of the Jerry Rice Award, which honors the national freshman player of the year in the Division I subdivision. Selected from 25 finalists by a 56-member national voting panel, he will be honored at the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Show on Jan. 3 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Rice Award, celebrating its 15th anniversary season, is named for legendary Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice, who starred in the FCS at Mississippi Valley State. The award includes both true and redshirt freshmen and encompasses all 13 FCS conferences, with Cooper Kupp, Chase Edmonds, Trey Lance, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders among the past recipients.
Atkinson, from Rolesville, North Carolina, didn’t play in Mercer’s Week 0 game against UC Davis (which was canceled during the fourth quarter by inclement weather) or in a Week 1 upset loss to Presbyterian. Following a bye in the schedule, coach Mike Jacobs installed Atkinson as the team’s starter, and the Bears’ season took off.
The 6-foot-1, 215-pound true freshman was both poised and productive as Mercer won nine straight games and captured a second consecutive outright Southern Conference championship, before falling against SEC member Auburn. In 10 games, Atkinson completed the regular season ranked second in the FCS with 3,448 passing yards, including a high of 533 against VMI; 34 touchdown passes, including three games with five; and 25.0 completions per game. The SoCon freshman of the year completed 68.2% of his passes with just seven interceptions, and he was sacked only twice.
Mercer (9-2) has earned the No. 6 seed for the FCS playoffs and will host South Dakota in the second round on Saturday.
2025 Jerry Rice 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. Braden Atkinson, Mercer: 51-2-1-0-1-267 2. Caden Pinnick, UC Davis: 2-28-7-1-4-149 3. Xai’Shaun Edwards, Houston Christian: 1-6-7-8-3-69 4. Lamont Lester Jr., Monmouth: 0-4-7-12-6-67 5. Tre Page III, Tarleton State: 0-4-6-7-3-51 6. Landen Clark, Elon: 0-5-4-3-6-44 7. Tony Diaz, UT Rio Grande Valley: 0-2-5-2-5-32 8. Montreze Smith Jr., Austin Peay: 0-1-3-2-5-28 9. Mitchell Summers, Sacred Heart: 0-0-6-2-4-20 10. EJ Colson, UIW: 0-0-6-1-3-17 11. Jaiden Haygood, UT Rio Grande Valley: 0-0-1-5-2-15 T12. Brooks Davis, Montana: 0-0-0-4-2-10 T12: Chase Bingmon, Prairie View A&M: 1-0-0-2-1-10 T12. Chase Hatton, Marist: 0-0-2-2-0-10 T15. Andrew Indorf, Towson: 0-0-2-1-1-9 T15. Darius Malcom Jr., Wofford: 1-1-0-0-0-9 T15. Nick Herman, Drake: 0-2-0-0-1-9 T15. Raymond Moore Jr., Morgan State: 0-0-2-1-1-9 19. Evan James, Furman: 0-1-0-0-2-6 20. Nic Yatsko, Indiana State: 0-0-1-0-2-5 21. Rashawn Cunningham, Charleston Southern: 0-0-0-0-2-2 T22. Matt Fogler, Colgate: 0-0-0-0-1-1 T22. Rico Bond, Lindenwood: 0-0-0-0-1-1 T24. Jaqai Carter, Robert Morris: 0-0-0-0-0-0 T24. Josh Robinson, Princeton: 0-0-0-0-0-0In addition to the Jerry Rice Award, the Walter Payton Award (FCS Offensive Player of the Year), Buck Buchanan Award (FCS Defensive Player of the Year), Eddie Robinson Award (FCS Coach of the Year), HBCU National Player of the Year and Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be presented at the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Show.
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