Colorado Buffaloes QB Steven Montez among Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award top 30 list

Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Steven Montez was named as one of the top 30 finalists for The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award on Friday.

After five weeks of play, the award’s selection committee decided the remaining nominees based on player performance on-and-off the field. Candidates must be a college senior or fourth-year junior on schedule to graduate with their class.

Montez has thrown for 1,092 yards, 9 touchdowns and two interceptions in four games for the Buffaloes. He leads the nation by completing 91-of-120 passes (75.8%), and has three games with five incompletions or less. Montez is one of seven Pac-12 quarterbacks to make the list, the most of any conference.

The remaining candidates for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (30):

David Blough, Purdue

Jake Browning, Washington

K.J. Carta-Samuels, Colorado State

Taylor Cornelius, Oklahoma State

Eric Dungey, Syracuse

Ryan Finley, NC State

Ty Gangi, Nevada

Will Grier, West Virginia

Justice Hansen, Arkansas State

Justin Herbert, Oregon

Tyler Huntley, Utah

Tyree Jackson, Buffalo

Drew Lock, Missouri

Trace McSorley, Penn State

Marcus McMaryion, Fresno State

McKenzie Milton, UCF

Gardner Minshew, Washington State

Steven Montez, Colorado

James Morgan, FIU

Shea Patterson, Michigan

Bryce Perkins, Virginia

Gus Ragland, Miami (OH)

Brett Rypien, Boise State

Kyle Shurmur, Vanderbilt

Jarrett Stidham, Auburn

Jordan Ta’amu, Ole Miss

Khalil Tate, Arizona

Clayton Thorson, Northwestern

Brady White, Memphis

Manny Wilkins, Arizona State

Pac-12 (7), SEC (4), Big Ten (4), Mountain West (4) ACC (3), Big 12 (2), American (2), Sun Belt (1), Mid-American (1), C-USA (1), and MAC (1)

Past standout winners of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award include: Peyton Manning (Tennessee, 1997); Carson Palmer (USC, 2002); Eli Manning (Ole Miss, 2003); Brady Quinn (Notre Dame, 2006); Matt Ryan (Boston College, 2007); Colt McCoy (Texas, 2009); Andrew Luck (Stanford, 2011); Marcus Mariota (University of Oregon, 2014); Connor Cook (Michigan State, 2015); Deshaun Watson (Clemson, 2016) and the 2017 winner, Mason Rudolph (Oklahoma State).

The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award ceremony will be held on December 7, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland.