UK Signee Montavin Quisenberry Named Paul Hornung Award Winner

Montavin Quisenberry scored 112 touchdowns in high school and threw for 15 more scores. (Chris Zollner Photo)

Paul Hornung played high school football in Louisville and won the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame in 1956 even though his team went 2-8 because he led the Irish in passing, rushing, scoring, kickoff and punt returns, punting and passes broken up and was second in interceptions and tackles.

Boyle County senior Montavin Quisenberry has the same type of versatility, one reason the Louisville Quarterback Club selected him as the recipient of the Paul Hornung Award that goes to the state’s top high school football player.

“Montavins’s season and career stats are a carbon copy of the Golden Boy’s (statistics). No  other candidate comes close to those all-around accomplishments. A perfect fit  for  our 32nd Annual Paul Hornung Award,” Louisville Quarterback Club vice-president Gordon Crawford said.

Boyle went 41-2 in his three seasons and won two Class 4A state championships. The 5-10, 175-pound University of Kentucky signee ran for 4,459 yards and 61 touchdowns on 444 carries — an average of 10 yards per carry. He had 151 catches for 2,509 yards — an average of 16 yards per catch — and 38 more scores. He completed 102 of 160 passes for 1,357 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also returned 13 kicks for scores. On defense, he made 165 tackles and eight interceptions.

“I think there is no doubt with what he did for our team that he was the clear cut winner of this award,” Haddix said. “I think his body of work against top flight competition across the state and against one of the best teams in the nation out of Ohio. He had the opportunity to perform on the big stage and always excelled.”

Haddix said Quisenberry’s understanding of the game made it easy to move him around to make him even more dynamic.

“On defense a lot of times we just locked him up on whoever was hurting us the most and he always gave us an advantage not many teams had. He can just play,” Haddix said. “He impacts the game in all three phases — offense, defense and special teams. He does a great job blocking or making catches at receiver. At strong safety he can play the run or pass equally well.”

Haddix called him a “Mr. Everything,” the same thing that could have been said about Hornung — the first Heisman Trophy winner to be named the NFL Most Valuable Player who is in both the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame.

“Obviously if you get the ball in his hands he is just dynamic. That sets him apart from other people. Just get it to him however you can because  when he gets the ball in space the first person is not going to tackle him. Stopping him is easier said than done.”

Haddix says once he gets to UK in January and can start concentrating on being just a receiver, he will get even better.

“There are still some things he has to learn and they will ask to do more than what we did and that will be good for him,” Haddix said. “He loves the game and he wants to play. In college you have to love football and he loves competing. In the big games he was always ready for it. You could see it in his eyes in warmups.  He understood in big games we were going to feed him the rock (ball) and see what he could do. He never disappointed.

“Tavi is a football player. The more football players you have who love football and are team guys who want to win, the better team you have. He doesn’t care if he gets the ball. He just wanted to win.”

Quisenberry noted during the season that winning the Paul Hornung Award would be a “cool thing” for him or any player. He watched former Paul Hornung winner Wan’Dale Robinson play when he was in the eighth grade.

He is the second Boyle player to win the award as linebacker Lamar Dawson was a co-winner with Ballard’s DeVante Parker in 2010.

He will enroll at UK in January and give up his high school senior basketball season.