FRISCO, Texas — Tommy Mellott's legendary career reached another level Saturday night when the Montana State senior quarterback was named the recipient of the 2024 Walter Payton Award as the most outstanding offensive player in the FCS.
Mellott was announced as the 38th Payton winner during the FCS national awards banquet at the Hyatt Regency Frisco. Mellott was voted the winner ahead of finalists Cam Miller (QB, North Dakota State) and Targhee Lambson (RB, Southern Utah).
Mellott is the second player from one of Montana's two NCAA Division I FCS schools to win the prestigious award; quarterback Dave Dickenson from the University of Montana was the winner in 1995, and the first from MSU to claim it.
"It's a surreal moment for sure," Mellott said. "Three years ago I was on the sideline after being injured in the national championship game, and I was talking on the mic to the quarterback coach at the time, coach (Taylor) Housewright, and he said, 'If you don't become the Walter Payton Award winner, we failed you.' So I think it's just a testament to what we've done as a program.
"But just having the opportunity to be out here today and be representing obviously such a great award, and winning it is a great honor. So (it's a) very humbling moment, and I'm very, very honored to have it."
A Butte native, Mellott is the 27th quarterback to earn the Walter Payton Award and the eighth in a row. He is the 10th player from the Big Sky Conference to win it and the first since Eastern Washington quarterback Eric Barriere in 2021.
In 15 games this season, Mellott has completed 68.8% of his passes for 2,564 yards with 29 touchdown and just two interceptions. He also has 915 rushing yards and 14 more scores on the ground while averaging 8.4 yards per carry.
NDSU's Miller has so far thrown for 3,052 yards with 31 touchdowns and four interceptions. He also has 510 rushing yards and 10 TDs.
Southern Utah's Lambson led the FCS with 1,922 rushing yards with 23 touchdowns in 2024.
This is the second national FCS honor Mellott has won in the past two years. Last year he was the recipient of the Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete award. Earlier Saturday, Mellott was named the NCAA's Elite 90 Award winner, which goes to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average at the final site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.
Mellott has a 4.0 GPA in financial engineering at MSU.
Also on Saturday, Central Arkansas defensive end David Walker was announced as the Buck Buchanan Award winner as the top defensive player in the FCS.
Montana State coach Brent Vigen was previously announced as the 2024 Eddie Robinson Award winner as FCS coach of the year, the first Bobcat coach to accept the honor.
Mellott is the third Bobcat to claim one of the major FCS MVP awards, following Caleb Schreibeis and Brad Daly, who each won the Buck Buchanan Award in 2012 and 2013.
Montana running back Eli Gillman was the Jerry Rice Award winner as the top freshman in the FCS last season.
Other Payton winners from the Big Sky Conference include Idaho's John Friesz (1989), Weber State's Jamie Martin (1991), Idaho's Doug Nussmeier (1993), Northern Arizona's Archie Amerson (1996), and Eastern Washington's Erik Meyer (2005), Bo Levi Mitchell (2011) and Cooper Kupp (2015).
Other national winners for this season include North Carolina Central kicker/punter Juan Velarde as the Doris Robinson winner, NDSU running back CharMar Brown as the Jerry Rice winner and South Carolina State quarterback Eric Phoenix as the inaugural HBCU+ national player of the year as the most outstanding player from the 21 FCS programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Mellott and Montana State (15-0) will face North Dakota State (13-2) in the FCS national championship game Monday night at Toyota Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. Mountain time and will be broadcast on ESPN.
