Nov. 7, 2011
NORFOLK, Va. -- Old Dominion quarterback Taylor Heinicke (Atlanta, Ga.) earned national recognition on top of his CAA Rookie of the Week honors being named The Sports Network/Fathead.com National Freshman of the Week and the National Quarterback and Performer of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards.
The true freshman signal caller, who last week was named to the Jerry Rice Award Watch List by the Sports Network, continued to lead the Monarchs by throwing for a season-high 373 yards and three touchdowns in the Monarchs' 42-28 victory over Richmond. Heinicke completed 34 of his 47 attempts and posted his second 300+ passing game of his six appearances thus far.
Heinicke, who also earned rookie honors from the conference office last week, opened up scoring by connecting with Larry Pinkard on a 14-yard pass and added a 29-yard touchdown throw to Prentice Gill with five minutes remaining in the second quarter. Midway through the fourth quarter with the score tied at 28-28, Heinicke helped orchastrate an 11-play, 67-yard drive from the Monarchs own 33 with 17 yards rushing and completing six of his nine passes, capping it off with a 1-yard pass to Antonio Vaughan to put ODU ahead for good.
The Atlanta, Georgia native is now 135-194-1 from the air and is averaging 249.5 yards per game with 15 touchdowns.