BATON ROUGE — LSU’s record-setting wide receiver Josh Reed has been named one of three finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, the award which recognizes college football’s top receiver, the Tallahassee Quarterback Club announced on Thursday.
Reed joins Florida’s Jabar Gaffney and Wisconsin’s Lee Evans as the three finalist.
Reed currently leads the nation in receiving yards per game with 145.7 a contest and he ranks seconds nationally with 8.1 receptions a game. Reed leads the SEC in both categories and he also leads the league in all-purpose yards with 159.0 a contest.
In nine games, Reed has caught 73 passes for a school-record 1,311 yards and four touchdowns. Gaffney has caught 56 passes for 1,025 yards and 11 touchdowns, while Evans has 63 receptions for 1,363 yards and nine scores.
Reed’s 73 receptions rank second in school history, just eight shy of breaking the single-season record of 80 set by Wendell Davis in 1986.
Reed broke both LSU and SEC single-game receiving records with 19 receptions for 293 yards in the Tigers’ 35-21 win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa two weeks ago.
Reed also holds the LSU record for career 100-yard games with 15, including eight this year. Reed is also only one of three receivers in SEC history with back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons. The other two are Tennessee’s Joey Kent (1995-96) and Florida’s Gaffney (2000-01).
Reed becomes the first LSU receiver to ever be named a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award.
The winner of the Biletnikoff Award will be announced on Dec. 6 in Orlando, Fla., and the winner will be honored with a banquet in Tallahassee on Feb. 13. The award is sponsored by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation and it’s named in honor of former Florida State and Oakland Raiders wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff.
Past winners of the award include Antonio Bryant of Pittsburgh (2000), Troy Walters of Stanford (1999), Troy Edwards of Louisiana Tech (1998), Randy Moss of Marshall (1997), Marcus Harris of Wyoming (1996), Terry Glenn of Ohio State (1995) and Bobby Engram of Penn State (1994).