ALLEN HIGH SCHOOL STANDOUT NAMED

GATORADE® TEXAS FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

CHICAGO (December 4, 2014) — In its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Kyler Murray of Allen High School as its 2014-15 Gatorade Texas Football Player of the Year. Murray is the first Gatorade Texas Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Allen High School and he wins this award for the second time.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Murray as Texas’s best high school football player.

Murray is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award announced in December, which was won in 2008 by Austin Lake Travis QB, Garrett Gilbert. (The first football player from Texas to win the national award.)

The 5-foot-11, 176-pound senior quarterback has led the Eagles to a 13-0 record and a berth in the Class 6A, Division I state quarterfinals, scheduled for Dec. 6. The state’s returning Gatorade Football Player of the Year threw for 3,563 yards and 40 touchdowns on 207-of-333 passing (62 percent) through 13 games. A returning First Team All-USA selection as named by USA TODAY, Murray also rushed for 1,291 yards and 25 touchdowns on 114 carries entering the state playoff round of eight. A 2015 Under Amour All-America Game selection and 2014 Elite 11 quarterback camp finalist, Murray led Allen to back-to-back Class 5A, Division I state titles as a sophomore and junior, capturing state championship game MVP honors each season. He enters the state quarterfinals with a 39-0 record as Allen’s starting quarterback.

Murray has maintained a B-plus average in the classroom. In addition to donating his time as a youth football instructor, he has volunteered locally as part of the Reading with the Eagles youth literacy-outreach and anti-bullying programs. He also serves as a mentor to several student team managers with special needs.

“He’s dominant,” said Jaydon McCullough, head coach of rival Plano High. “When you think that you’ve got him on third and long or when the game is on the line, he changes the outcome. He has great character, and to me that means he’s only going to get better. I’ve coached a lot of great players, and the ones who’ve gotten better had great character. Plus, Kyler has a burning desire to the best. I’m happy to see him go, to be honest. I was watching him against DeSoto, and all I kept thinking was, ‘Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with him anymore.’ Allen is always going to be great, but Kyler Murray just doesn’t know

how to lose.”

Murray has verbally committed to play football on scholarship at Texas A&M beginning in the fall of 2015.

Murray joins Gatorade Texas Football Players of the Year Kenny Hill (2012-13, Southlake Carroll), Jonathan Gray (2011-12 & 2010-11, Aledo), Scotty Young (2009-10, Denton Ryan), Garrett Gilbert (2008-09, Austin Lake Travis) and Riley Dodge (2007-08, Southlake Carroll) among the state’s list of former award winners.

by Chris Doelle