Williamsburg - William and Mary's Lang Campbell (Winchester, VA) put a fitting end to what has been a near magical football season by being named as the recipient of the 2004 Payton Award at the 18th annual I-AA College Football Awards Ceremony held this evening in Chattanooga. Campbell earned the award, which is presented annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the I-AA ranks, by virtue of a national vote of college sports information directors and selected media.

Campbell is the first Tribe player to earn the prestigious award.

Campbell established school single-season records for passing yards (3,988), total offense (4,305) and touchdowns (30), as well as touchdowns responsible for (38, as he also had eight rushing TDs). The Winchester, VA native led William & Mary to a share of the Atlantic 10 title and its first appearance in the NCAA I-AA semifinals, along with the first 11-win season in the 111-year history of the Tribe's program. At the con-clusion of the regular season, Campbell was honored as the A-10 Offensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player in the Tribe's 12-year association with the league to earn the award.

He earned the A10's highest individual offensive honor as the key component in a Tribe attack that averaged over 430 yards and 34 points a contest. The history and economics major helped power the squad to a 11-3 final record, a share of the A10 Title and a school-record No. 3 seed in the NCAA Championship field by leading the conference in seven different categories, including passing yards, passing efficiency and total offense.

By ending the season leading the sixth-ranked Tribe to a 38-14 win over archrival Richmond with 291 yards and four touchdowns on 21 com-pletions (in 28 attempts), Campbell earned his third A10 Offensive Player of the Week honor.

Campbell's season average of 284.9 passing yards per game is a school-record and was the top figure in the A10. Campbell became just the fourth Tribe quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards in a season and joins former All-American signal-caller Mike Cook (1995-98) as the College's only quarterbacks to accomplish the trick in just 11 games (Cook threw for 3,028 in 1998). Campbell's 3,988 passing yards shatters the school's previous single-season total of 3,414, set by Chris Hakel during a 13-game 1990 season.

By completing an eye-catching .655 of his attempts (298 of 455), Campbell had the third best completion percentage in school history. In fact, he ended his career by completing better than 50% of his attempts in all but one of his 24 career starts. For his career, Campbell has a comple-tion percentage of .649, which ranks him second all-time at the College (trailing only Shawn Knight's career mark of .655).

Campbell ended the regular season with just one INT in 326 attempts. His minuscule interception percentage of .31 was the best 11-game av-erage in the nation among all levels (the next closest total was Georgetown's Andrew Crawford, who sported a .64 average, with just one INT in 156 attempts) and an NCAA regular season record. Campbell ended the regular season by throwing 235 consecutive passes without an in-terception and had a TD-to-INT ratio of 21:1, which was far and away the nation's best total among all quarterbacks (the next best ratio belongs to Bowling Green's Omar Jacobs who sports a 10:1 TD:INT ratio; 32 TDs:3 Ints).

He also has rushed for eight touchdowns and 317 yards.

The semifinal match up with eighth-ranked James Madison was the Tribe's eighth game against a ranked opponent in 13 contests this season. By running up 335 yards of total offense against the Dukes, Campbell provided just one more example of his ability to excel when the spotlight is shining brightest. In the eight games against ranked opponents this season, he averaged 291.1 passing yards per game (2,330), completed 66.1% of his attempts (154 of 233) and accounted for 18 touchdowns.

In his lone outing against I-A competition, at the University of North Carolina, Campbell accounted for four touchdowns and 357 total yards in the team's hard-fought 49-38 loss.

He etched his name throughout the College's record book in just two years a starter, ranking fifth in career passing yards (6,494), fourth in total offense (7,149) and third in touchdown passes (54).

A four-time honor roll student at the College, Campbell carries a GPA of better than 3.3 going into his final semester on campus and will graduate this spring with a degree in history and economics. Not only a leader on the field, Campbell is active in helping chart the school's athletic policies, as they relate to athletes, by being a member of the school's Student Athletics Advisory Committee. He also has made an im-pact for several local charities, including Avalon (a house for abused women and children) and St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

Campbell received 40 first-place votes and 315 points from the panel of 94 I-AA sports information directors and selected media. Following Campbell in the voting were Sam Houston State quarterback Dustin Long, who earned 17 first-place votes and 185 total points, and Appala-chian State wide receiver DaVon Fowlkes, who had eight first-place votes and 151 total points.

THE CAMPBELL FILE
Hometown: Winchester, Va.
High School: Handley
Major: History and Economics

Honors/Awards:
First Team All-American, Sports Network
First Team All-American, Walter Camp Foundation
First Team All-American, Associated Press
First Team All-American, American Football Coaches Association
Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year
Atlantic 10 First Team All-Conference
Atlantic 10 Football Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year

Season Individual Records:
W&M Record for:
Passing Yards: 3,988
Total Offense: 4,305
Passing TDs: 30
Attempts: 455
Completions: 298 (Completion .655)
Highest Per Game Passing Average: 284.9
Highet Per Game Total Offense Average: 307.5
300-yard Games: 7
Fewest Interceptions (for 11 game regular season): 1
Touchdowns Responsible for: 38 (30 passing, eight rushing)

Team Records:
Most wins: 11
First Appearance in the National Semi-Finals
Most Points in a season: 486

Personal: Son of Shep and Nancy Campbell... Owns a cumulative GPA of better than 3.3 ... Enjoys playing sports, listening to music and reading in his free time... Born September 25, 1981.