Ole Miss WR A.J. Brown’s performance during the 2018 season is gaining national attention.
Brown has been selected as one of 11 semifinalists for the 2018 Biletnikoff Award by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc after being placed on the watch list before the season began.
The junior WR has been a steady target for the Rebel offense this season, and he leads the SEC and ranks fifth nationally with 1,047 receiving yards. In Saturday’s loss to Texas A&M, Brown passed WR Shay Hodge’s mark of 2,646 yards to become the all-time leader in receiving yards in Ole Miss history.
With two games left in the regular season and no hope for a bowl game, Brown may be playing his last two games in a Rebel uniform before heading to the NFL. During his weekly press conference, head coach Matt Luke discussed Brown’s ability to make plays all over the field.
“Been around a lot of great receivers here at Ole Miss, for him to be the all-time leading receiver, that’s a pretty special accomplishment for him,” Luke said. “He’s been very unselfish—playing inside, playing outside. He’s very versatile. That will do nothing but help him going forward, his ability to do a bunch of different things. He makes plays outside, if you put him inside, he’ll make plays there too.”
His 7.2 receptions per game rank eighth in the NCAA. The Starkville native has five 100-yard receiving games this season, including three straight. Brown is the only Ole Miss receiver in program history to record 60 or more receptions in back-to-back seasons, as well as the only Rebel wideout to go over 1,000 yards receiving in multiple seasons.
Despite the advantage for WRs, the Biletnikoff Award is given to the best receiver in CFB, regardless of position. This means that any player that catches a pass is eligible for the award.
The award is named in honor of Fred Biletnikoff, a member of both the Pro and College Football Hall of Fame. He was a consensus All-American receiver at Florida State University, and an All-Pro receiver for the Oakland Raiders. He caught 589 passes for 8,974 yards and 76 touchdowns in his 14-year Raiders career from 1965 through 1978. Fred was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XI.
Three finalists will be announced on Nov. 19 following another vote by the highly distinguished Biletnikoff Award National Selection Committee, a group of prominent college football journalists, commentators, announcers, Biletnikoff Award winners, and other former receivers.
2018 Biletnikoff Award Semifinalists
- JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Stanford
- A.J. Brown, Ole Miss
- Marquise Brown, Oklahoma
- N’Keal Harry, Arizona State
- Andy Isabella, UMass
- Jerry Jeudy, Alabama
- Rondale Moore, Purdue
- David Sills V, West Virginia
- John Ursua, Hawaii
- Tylan Wallace, Oklahoma State
- Antoine Wesley, Texas Tech
