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Eric Barriere has the opportunity to finish what he started. The Eastern Washington University football player was named to the prestigious Walter Payton Award Watch List by Stats Perform, as announced this morning (Aug. 4). The prestigious award is given to the national offensive player of the year in college football's Division I subdivision.
Barriere is no stranger to the list, as he's been a finalist the past two seasons. Last year, Barriere finished runner up to Southeastern Louisiana's Cole Kelley, coming just six votes shy (137-131) of the award. In 2019 as a junior, he finished fifth. He is one of 35 players on the list, along with Sacred Heart's Julius Chestnut who finished behind him in voting. More players can join the list during the regular season and a national media panel will select the winner at the end of the year.
The Inglewood, Calif., native adds this to a long list of other preseason accolades the senior has racked up this season. He's been named the Preseason Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP for the second-straight year after winning the honor last season, was named to the Preseason All-Big Sky team, and most recently was named first team All-America by Stats Perform.
He is coming off of a season that saw him lead Eastern Washington to the NCAA FCS Playoffs and was named a first team All-American by six different organizations, including being named the FCS Offensive Player of the Year by the FCS ADA.
The senior made a case for the Payton Award last year by passing for at least 300 yards in five of six regular games and having at least 400 yards of total offense in three of them. Barriere ranked in the top 10 in the FCS in total offense (fifth, 369.0 per game), passing offense (fifth, 348.4), passing touchdowns (third, 19) and points responsible for (ninth, 17.4 per game). He completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 2,439 yards, 19 touchdowns and 2,583 total yards of offense.
Should he win the award this year, he'll join the likes of previous Eastern Washington winners: Cooper Kupp (2015), Bo Levi Mitchel (2011), and Erik Meyer (2005). EWU shares the lead for the most Payton Awards all-time along with Villanova.
Barriere and the rest of the Eagles start fall camp at the end of the week in preparations for the first regular season game on Sept. 2 against UNLV in Las Vegas, Nev., at Allegiant Stadium.
More on Eric Barriere:
In his illustrious 38-game career, Barriere is now 20-9 as a starter, including 13-0 at home. He went over the 10,000-yard mark for total offense in his career with a current total of 10,102 – including 8,739 through the air. He ranks fifth in school history in both categories, as well as his career total of 75 TD passes. He's now fourth with 93 total touchdowns responsible for. Eastern career records in those categories are 13,308, 12,616, 110 and 121. Barriere has completed 60.3 percent of his passes in his career (646-of-1071), good for 8,739 yards, 75 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, and has rushed 287 times for 1,363 net yards and 18 more TDs. He had a passing efficiency rating of 146.9 as a sophomore, 151.6 in 2019 and a 148.1 mark in his career to currently rank fifth in school history. Barriere has surpassed the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback -- he now has 1,363 with Vernon Adams Jr. closing his career with 1,232. Eastern is 19-1 when Barriere has rushed for at least 21 yards, with the lone loss coming at Sacramento State (10/5/19) when he finished with 103. Besides the Sac State game, he's rushed for at least 98 yards on four other occasions (98/Southern Utah/2018, 99/Portland State/2018, 101/Northern Arizona/2019, 164/Cal Poly/2019). Barriere now has 10 career performances with at least 400 yards of total offense, and 19 with 300+. He also has had 13 performances with at least 300 passing yards (five with at least 400). He has now been honored six times in his career as Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week, including three times in 2020-21 and twice in the 2019 season.
