Vernon Adams

Vernon Adams
Oregon Ducks No. 3
Position Quarterback
Class Senior
Major Interdisciplinary Studies
Career history
College
High school Mission Hills (CA) Bishop Alemany
Personal information
Date of birth January 3, 1993
Place of birth Pasadena, California
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight 200 lb (91 kg)
Career highlights and awards
  • 2x Walter Payton Award Runner-Up (2013-14)
  • College Football Performance Awards FCS National Performer of the Year (2013)
  • First-Team FCS All-American (AP) (2014)
  • Second-Team FCS All-American (AP, TSN) (2013)
  • 2x First Team All-Big Sky Conference (2013-14)
  • 2x Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year (2013-14)
Stats at ESPN.com

Vernon Adams, Jr. (born January 3, 1993) is an American football quarterback who will play for Oregon in the fall of 2015. He will be immediately eligible to play his senior year after graduating and transferring from Eastern Washington University in the spring of 2015.

Early years

Adams graduated from Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, California, in 2011. In his final two seasons, he passed for 5,234 yards and 49 touchdowns, and rushed for another 1,263 yards and 19 more scores in leading Alemany to an overall record of 22-5. As a senior, he was selected the Serra League Most Valuable Player after leading the Warriors to the league title in 2010. He earned first team all-league honors for the second-straight season. Alemany won its first 12 games before losing its final game of the season, 28-21, against eventual champion Servite High School in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Playoffs. He passed for 2,901 yards with 27 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and had 896 yards rushing with 14 touchdowns.

As a junior, Adams passed for 2,333 yards and 22 touchdowns, and also rushed for 367 yards and five scores. He led Alemany to a 10-4 record.[1]

Coming out of high school, Adams did not receive any scholarship offers from Football Bowl Subdivision schools, due in part to concerns regarding his height. He would eventually receive only two scholarships offers from Football Championship Subdivision schools Portland State and Eastern Washington.[2] Adams originally made a verbal commitment to Portland State, but flipped on National Signing Day and signed with Eastern Washington.[3]

College career

2011

Adams signed with the Eastern Washington Eagles in 2011 and redshirted that year. Adams would eventually be named Eastern's Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year.[1]

2012

In 2012, Adams would split time at quarterback with Junior Kyle Padron, who transferred in the summer to Eastern Washington from FBS school Southern Methodist. Adams would play in 12 games in 2012, starting in nine of those games. Adams finished the year with 1,961 yards passing, 20 touchdowns to 8 interceptions and a 160.80 pass efficiency rating, which was the fourth-best mark in the FCS that year.[1]

Adams would help lead the Eagles to an appearance in the FCS playoffs semifinals. In the Eagles' loss to Sam Houston State, Adams came off of the bench in the second half, completing 14-of-26 passes for 364 yards and a school-recond six touchdowns, nearly rallying the Eagles from a 35-0 halftime deficit.[4]

At the end of the season, Adams was selected as the Freshman of the Year on the College Sporting News “Fabulous 50” All-America team, and was also on the College Sports Journal Freshman All-America squad.[5] Adams was also one of 20 players on the ballot for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the top freshman in FCS by The Sports Network, which he finished in sixth place.[1]

2013

In 2013, Adams would enter his redshirt sophomore year as the unquestioned starter for the Eagles. In their first game against FBS #25 Oregon State, Adams would lead the eagles to a 49-46 upset win. The victory would mark only the third time in history that an FCS school has ever beaten a ranked FBS school in a game.[6] Adams passed for 411 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 107 yards with two more touchdowns in the victory. Adams would receive national recognition for his performance in the Oregon State game, including becoming the first-ever FCS player to be included in the HeismanPundit.com straw poll.[7]

In 15 games in 2013, Adams threw for 4,994 yards and 55 touchdown passes, both of which rank as the third-best totals in FCS single-season history.[8] Adams' passing efficiency rating of 183.1, ranks fourth all-time in the FCS and is also a school and Big Sky Conference record.[1]

On November 26, 2013, Adams was named to the All-Big Sky Conference First Team as a unanimous selection and was also the recipient of the conference's Offensive Player of the Year Award.[9]

On December 16, 2013, Adams finished as the runner-up in the voting for the Walter Payton Award, losing to Eastern Illinois quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.[10]

On December 18, 2013, Adams was named a second-team All-American by the Associated Press[11] and The Sports Network.[12]

On January 9, 2014, Adams was honored by the College Football Performance Awards as the 2013 FCS National Performer of the Year, the top overall honor given out by the CFPA at the FCS level.[13]

2014

Adams entered his junior season as one of the most high-profile players at the FCS level. He would lead his team to a third-straight Big Sky Conference championship and a third-straight trip to the FCS playoffs. Adams' per-game averages for total offensive yards (376.8), passing yards (348.3) and points responsible for (24.8) were tops in the nation, but he didn’t play enough games to officially be listed in NCAA statistics.[14] Adams broke two bones in his foot during a win over Idaho State on October 4th, causing him to miss four games.[15]

Against Washington on September 5th, Adams completed 31 of 46 passes for 475 yards and seven touchdowns in a 59-52 loss. The seven touchdowns were the most the Huskies had allowed to an opposing quarterback at home in school history.[16]

Adams received a number of postseason awards, to include being named the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year and First-Team All-Big Sky Conference for the second-straight year.[17] He was also named a First-Team All-American by the Associated Press.[18] Adams was again a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, but was the runner-up for the second-straight year, losing to John Robertson of Villanova.[19]

2015

In January, Adams asked for, and was granted, a release from his scholarship from Eastern Washington so that he could speak to other programs in regards to transferring for his senior season.[20] Adams contacted Oregon, UCLA and Boise State. Texas and Maryland also contacted Adams in regards to transferring.[2]

On the first weekend in February, Adams went on a visit to Oregon and was offered a scholarship if he were to transfer.[21] On February 9th, Adams announced his plans to transfer to Oregon for his senior season, choosing to play for the Ducks over remaining at Eastern Washington. Since Adams will graduate in June, he will be immediately eligible to play as a graduate transfer[22]

College career statistics

All statistics from goeags.com[23]

Passing statistics

Year Team Games Completions Yards TD/INT
COMP ATT PCT YDS Y/G TD INT LG
2011 EWU Redshirt Season
2012 EWU 12 131 215 60.9 1,961 163.4 20 8 60
2013 EWU 15 319 486 65.6 4,994 332.9 55 15 86
2014 EWU 10 251 380 66.1 3,483 348.3 35 8 61
Career 37 701 1,081 64.2 10,438 287.6 110 31 86

Rushing statistics

Year Team Games RUSHING TD/LG
RUSH YDS Y/G AVG TD LG
2011 EWU Redshirt Season
2012 EWU 12 65 342 28.5 5.3 1 24
2013 EWU 15 132 605 40.3 4.6 4 24
2014 EWU 10 100 285 28.5 2.8 6 31
Career 37 297 1,232 32.4 4.2 11 31

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Official Eastern Washington Eagles Vernon Adams bio". Goeags.com. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Vernon Adams is a quarterback without a team — for now". usatoday.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Vernon Adams: A verbal commit". psuvanguard.com. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Sam Houston State Holds Off Second-Half Comeback From EWU". college-sports-journal.com. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  5. ↑ "EWU Football: Vernon Adams Picked as FCS Freshman of the Year". swxrightnow.com. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  6. ↑ "EWU upsets No. 25 Oregon State". foxsports.com. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Tajh Boyd leads HeismanPundit.com Heisman Straw Poll after first week of play". heismanpundit.com. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Eagles Dominate in Third Quarter Again, But Tigers Rally for Win and Trip to Frisco". goeags.com. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Adams and Kupp take top Big Sky honors, 25 Eags named All-Conference". KREM.com. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Eastern Washington’s Vernon Adams 2nd in voting for Payton Award". seattletimes.com. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  11. ↑ "AP FCS All-America Team, List". sacbee.com. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  12. ↑ "In the FCS Huddle: FCS All-America team shines on star power". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Vernon Adams and Cooper Kupp Receive Top Honors from College Performance Awards". goeags.com. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Eastern Washington junior QB Vernon Adams Jr. finishes 2nd again in Walter Payton Award balloting". spokesmanreview.com. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  15. ↑ "EWU quarterback Vernon Adams to miss 3-6 weeks with broken foot". spokesmanreview.com. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Vernon Adams Jr. puts up big numbers for Eastern Washington". latimes.com. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Eastern quarterback Vernon Adams Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year". spokesmanreview.com. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Vernon Adams top QB on All-America list". spokesmanreview.com. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Adams fininshes second for Walter Payton award...again". khq.com. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Eastern grants Vernon Adams a release to explore opportunity at Oregon". spokesman.com. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Oregon offers scholarship to Eastern Washington QB Vernon Adams". si.com. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Quarterback Vernon Adams chooses Oregon, will join Ducks rather than return to Eastern Washington". oregonlive.com. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Vernon Adams Jr. Career Statistics". goeags.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.

External links