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Football NWC Athletic Communications

Jalyn Gramstad Earns NAIA National Player of the Year Honor

He joins former quarterback Tyson Kooima as only NAIA Players of the Year

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Junior quarterback Jalyn Gramstad was named the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Friday afternoon, December 15, while the top-ranked Red Raider football team (14-0, 10-0 GPAC) prepares for the national championship game, the NAIA national office announced.  
 
"Jalyn has really grown as a quarterback this year," noted head coach Matt McCarty. "He put in a lot of work in the offseason after a great year last year to come back even stronger this year."
 
Picking up right where they left off last season, Gramstad (Jr., Lester, Iowa) has led Northwestern to a perfect 14-0 record this season, including a win over National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FCS foe Drake (8-4, 8-0 PFL) who also punched a ticket to the NCAA FCS Playoffs this season.  
The junior has had another stellar season so far in 2023, leading Northwestern back to Durham and the NAIA national championship game for the second-straight year. He has surpassed 3,000 passing yards in a season for the first time in his Red Raider career, throwing for 3,381 yards heading out to North Carolina with his NAIA-leading 70.7% completion percentage (244-for-348).
 
"Gramstad makes everyone around him better," noted McCarty. "He's a confident, unselfish leader who does everything he can for the team to be successful."
 
Gramstad has thrown for a career-high 33 touchdowns this season to just eight interceptions, with his longest pass being 64 yards at Mount Marty back on September 23. He has compiled a quarterback rating of 178.65 this season, which ranks third in the NAIA.
 
In a 42-0 road win at Mount Marty this season, Gramstad threw for a career-high 397 yards with four touchdown tosses on September 23. It started a monster few weeks for the quarterback, who then followed that MMU performance with two more 300+-yard passing games, all on the road, against Midland (Sept. 30) and Briar Cliff (Oct. 14).  
The long list of accolades continues for the junior signal caller. He was named an American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and NAIA First Team All-American, the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Offensive Player of the Year. Additionally, he was a First Team All-GPAC performer this season and a three-time GPAC Offensive Player of the Week honoree.
 
He becomes just the second Red Raider to garner NAIA Player of the Year honors, joining former Red Raider quarterback Tyson Kooima who won it in the 2020 season. Gramstad marks the fourth-consecutive GPAC athlete to be named the NAIA Player of the Year.

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Players Mentioned

Jalyn Gramstad

#12 Jalyn Gramstad

QB
6' 0"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Jalyn Gramstad

#12 Jalyn Gramstad

6' 0"
Junior
QB