King earns spot on Wuerffel Watch List

Published 1:41 pm Friday, August 1, 2025

Former Longview Lobo and current Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King added to his list of preseason awards on Thursday when he was named to the Wuerffel Trophy Watch List.

The Wuerffel Trophy is college football’s premier award for community service.

The trophy is presented annually by the Wuerffel Foundation to the FBS player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership and performance on and off the field.

Named after Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer, Danny Wuerffel, the award honors his commitment to inspiring greater service and unity in the world. Established in 2005, the Wuerffel Trophy is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year. Wuerffel led the University of Florida to four SEC Championships and the 1996 National Championship.

Earlier this week, King was selected to the Maxwell Award Watch List for the nation’s most outstanding player.

King goes into his final season at Georgia Tech tied for fourth in Tech history in touchdown passes (41), fifth in career completions (422), sixth in passing yards (4,956), tied for ninth in rushing touchdowns (21) and 37th in rushing yards (1,324).

Those gaudy numbers have come from only two seasons in white and gold, and despite King being absent from two games in 2024 because of a shoulder injury.

That approach has stuck with King, and upon his move a few offseasons ago from Texas A&M to Georgia Tech, it meshed with Yellow Jackets coach Brent Key — a former O-Line coach — and became increasingly crucial to their offense. In 2023, King was one of only two power-conference quarterbacks with at least 2,800 passing yards, 25 touchdown passes, 700 rushing yards and 10 rushing scores. The other was that year’s Heisman winner, Jayden Daniels.

Last fall while battling a shoulder injury that kept King limited in the passing game for about half the season, he became the first D-I QB in the last 69 years with at least 2,000 passing yards, 10 touchdown passes, a 70% completion rate and two or fewer interceptions in a season.

He also rushed for 587 yards and 11 touchdowns, and the lasting impression he left was him continuing to pound the football, get hit, tackled and then back up against rival Georgia while tallying 110 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in the regular-season finale. King carried the ball 24 times.