Owls quarterback Shepherd on watch list for Walter Payton Award

Kennesaw State quarterback Xavier Shepherd’s recent offensive production garnered him inclusion as one of 11 players added to the Walter Payton Award watch list Wednesday.

The award, named after the legendary Chicago Bears running back, is given to the best offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision each season. It marked the second watch list Shepherd had been added to in as many days, after being named a candidate for the FCS National Performer of the Year Award on Tuesday.

Shepherd, a sophomore from Nashville, Tennessee, has passed for 1,034 yards and rushed for 668 this season. His 12 rushing touchdowns rank fifth in the FCS, and his 13 passing touchdowns are tied for the Kennesaw State single-season record.

Shepherd has thrown 10 of his 13 touchdown passes in the last three games, compiled 506 yards. He became the first quarterback in Kennesaw State history to throw four touchdown passes in a single game when he did so against Gardner-webb and followed that with another fourtouchdown game last weekend at Robert Morris.

Shepherd has won eight of his first nine career starts at quarterback, a feat that has never been done in Owls history.

Shepherd, a three-time Big South Offensive Player of the

Week selection and two-time FCS National Performer of the Week honorable mention, is the second Kennesaw State quarterback to appear on the Walton Peyton Award watch list. Chandler Burks, now the Owls’ quarterbacks and B-backs coach, appeared on the list in 2017 and 2018, finishing as the runnerup in 2018.