Rypien Makes Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Top 30

BOISE, Idaho - Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien has been named one of the top 30 candidates for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award presented by A.O. Smith, as the award committee trimmed its preseason list of candidates after the first five weeks of the season.

Rypien, the FBS active career leader in passing yardage (11,265), is off to a phenomenal start to his senior season in 2018, ranking in the national top 15 in completions per game (27.0, third), passing yards per game (347.3, fourth), completion percentage (70.1, 11th), passing yards (1,389, 13th), passing touchdowns (12, 14th), and passing efficiency (171.6, 14th) through last weekend's contests.

The Spokane, Wash., native has also opened his season with four-straight 300-yard passing games, and is currently on a Boise State-record streak of five such games, dating back to last year's Las Vegas Bowl.

With 12 touchdown passes, Rypien is also one of two passers in the country with at least 12 against zero interceptions. Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa, with a 14:0 touchdown-to-interception ratio, is the other.

Rypien is currently just 1,426 yards shy of becoming the Mountain West's all-time leader (San Diego State's Ryan Lindley is the all-time leader at 12,690). With his performance Sept. 1 at Troy, Rypien eclipsed the 10,000 career passing yards mark, becoming just the second Boise State quarterback (along with Kellen Moore) and fifth Mountain West quarterback to do so.

Sept. 29 at Wyoming, Rypien passed BYU's John Beck (2003-06) into third place on the Mountain West's all-time passing yards list, and, with his 18th-career 300-yard passing performance, passed Beck for second all-time in Mountain West history. He is just two back of the benchmark of 20 set by BYU's Max Hall (2007-09).

No. -/24 Boise State (3-1, 1-0 MW) continues Mountain West play Saturday, hosting San Diego State (3-1) at 1:30 p.m. at Albertsons Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

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