Pick Six: Central Missouri’s Zach Zebrowski among 2024 small-college stars after passing for 61 TDs

Zach Zebrowski more than made up for lost time in his first season at Central Missouri.

After spending three years mostly on the bench at Southern Illinois in the Football Championship Subdivision, Zebrowski turned in one of the greatest seasons by a college quarterback in any division.

He passed for at least five touchdowns in nine of the Mules’ 13 games and finished with a Division II record 61, making him only the sixth player at any level to throw for at least 60.

The fifth-year senior goes into 2024 as the reigning Harlon Hill Trophy winner as Division II’s player of the year and motivated to make a deeper playoff run after a late blocked extra point ended the Mules’ season in the second round.

The 6-foot-2, 208-pound Zebrowski was undersized for most of his career at East Ridge High in Woodbury, Minnesota. He grew 6 inches after his junior year and was one of the top quarterbacks in the Twin Cities area as a senior, but he didn’t attract much Division I recruiting attention.

He walked on at Southern Illinois, appeared in only seven games over three years and, with the Salukis’ starter returning, his prospects for playing time last season were dim. At Central Missouri, he was co-No. 1 quarterback entering the opener at Missouri Western and spent the first quarter on the bench. He took over on the fourth possession, passed for 390 yards and five touchdowns and ended the quarterback competition then and there.

“I don’t know if I would have believed it if you told me it would happen,” Zebrowski said. “I’ve always had confidence in myself and thought I would be able to do it if I got the chance. Getting the chance and being able to run with it was pretty damn cool.”

In addition to his prodigious TD numbers, Zebrowksi finished with a Division II-record 5,690 yards of total offense, threw only five interceptions and ranked second in the country in passing efficiency.

Zebrowski said he explored transferring to a higher-division school for his final season. His dad, Jim Zebrowski, is quarterbacks coach at Kansas, but he never seriously considered that an option because the Jayhawks have an established starter in Jalon Daniels.

Zebrowski said he decided to return to take care of unfinished business.

“I was always pretty set on coming back,” he said. “If we had won a national championship, it would have been a different conversation. Losing the way we did left a sour taste in all our mouths.”

Other players to watch at smaller schools this season:

QB Luke Lehnen, North Central (Illinois)

Lehnen threw for 48 touchdowns and ran for 13, completed 73% of his passes and was intercepted just twice. He finished with 3,407 yards passing and 850 rushing. He led North Central to national titles in 2021 and ’22 and to the championship game last year. He enters his fourth year as the starter favored to become the first player in 10 seasons to be a back-to-back winner of the Gagliardi Trophy as the Division III player of the year.

S Tanner Volk, Central Washington

Volk won the Cliff Harris Award as the best small-college defensive player and was a Harlon Hill finalist. His 13 interceptions were most in any NCAA division and his 124 tackles led Division II. He picked off two passes in four games and had at least one in nine of 13 games. He enters his senior season with 18 interceptions in 34 games.

DL Anthony Cikauskas, Monmouth (Illinois)

Cikauskas was the most dominant defensive lineman in Division III as a sophomore with 26 tackles for loss and a nation-leading 17 sacks. He had at least one sack in every game but the opener; he had a career-high 3.5 against Illinois College. The 6-3, 240-pounder also forced five fumbles, broke up two passes and blocked a kick.

RB Rontavious Farmer, St. Thomas (Florida)

Farmer’s 3,326 yards rushing the last two seasons are most in the NAIA. Last year he carried 280 times for 1,773 yards (6.3 per attempt) and 26 touchdowns. He went over 200 yards in three games, including 236 in a playoff loss at Keiser (Florida). The 5-9, 185-pound Farmer had 254 carries for 1,553 yards (6.1) and 14 TDs in 2022.

WR Austin Jablonski, Concordia (Nebraska)

Jablonski transferred to Concordia after spending two seasons at Nebraska. He moved from quarterback to receiver early in the 2022 season, and last year his 91 catches and 113.4 yards receiving per game led the NAIA. He had 11 catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for a score against Hastings.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football