Dolincheck receives top NAIA playing award
DURHAM, N.C. – (courtesy of the NAIA) - Morningside University senior quarterback Joe Dolincheck (Bellevue, Neb.) has been chosen as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' Football National Player of the Year. Orchestrating the most lethal offense in the country, he has guided the Mustangs back into the national championship game for the third time in four years.
The 200-pound gunslinger is the Mustangs' fourth student-athlete to gain national Player of the Year honors, joining Kyle Schuck (2013), Ryan Kasdorf (2015) and Trent Solsma (2018). Dolincheck, the third Mside signal caller to be so honored along with Kasdorf and Solsma, has totaled 295 completions at a 67.8% rate for 4,378 yards. His 336.8 passing yards per game rank first nationally, and he has a 42-9 touchdown to interception ratio. Most incredibly, he has not taken a sack in 2021.
Dolincheck has thrown for 12,629 yards in his 47 games and recorded 128 touchdowns compared to only 30 picks for his Mustang career. He has a four-year average of 68.3% completion percentage on 1,248 attempts.
The Morningside offense ranks first nationally in points per game (56.9) and total points (740), first in total yards (7954) and yards per game (611.8), and touchdowns with 48.
In the NAIA Football Championship Series semifinal round, he outdueled the reigning NAIA Player of the Year, Tyson Kooima. Dolincheck tossed for 293 yards on 39 attempts with a long completion of 69 yards.
Dolincheck was previously named NAIA/AFCA First-Team All-American, the second of his career after being honored on the 2019 Associated Press Little All-America Team. In November, the senior was named Great Plains Conference Offensive Player of the Year.
The second-seeded Mustangs will play host to the third-seeded Grand View Vikings on Saturday, December 18th at 5:00 p.m. CST at Durham County Memorial Stadium in the NAIA National Championship.