Junior Wideout Becomes the Seventh Rebel to Win the Prestigious Award
Ole Miss wide receiver A.J. Brown won the 2017 C Spire Conerly Trophy Tuesday night as Mississippi’s most outstanding college football player this season.
Now in its 22nd year, the C Spire Conerly Trophy is named after the late Charlie Conerly—the only football inductee in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame who was an All-American at a Mississippi university, an NFL rookie of the year and NFL All-Pro member and quarterbacked a team to a world championship.
Brown, a sophomore from Starkville, Mississippi, finished the 2017 season as the Ole Miss single-season record-holder in receiving yards (1,252) and tied for the top spot in receiving touchdowns (11). He leads the SEC and ranks sixth nationally in receiving yards per game (104.3).
His six 100-yard receiving games is tied for best in a single season, equaling Laquon Treadwell‘s mark in 2015. Brown finished third on the single-season record charts in receptions (75).
Brown becomes the seventh Rebel, eighth time overall, to win the prestigious award. It also marks the first time Ole Miss has won the award in back-to-back seasons.
The six former Rebels to win the Conerly Trophy include: Stewart Patridge (1997), Deuce McAllister (1999), Eli Manning (2001, 2003), Patrick Willis (2006), Bo Wallace (2012) and Evan Engram (2016).
He beat out nine other finalists, representing each of the 10 football-playing universities and colleges in the state. Other finalists were Alcorn State RB De’Lance Turner, Belhaven QB Hunter McEachern, Delta State RB Chris Robinson, Jackson State LB Shawn Bishop, Millsaps LB Jacob Kendall, Mississippi College DB Chris Manning, Mississippi State QB Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi Valley State DB Mark Pegues, and Southern Miss RB Ito Smith.
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