Eric Moala-Liava’a (aka E-MO) 🇺🇸 🇹🇴

Braden Atkinson leads all of college football in passing yards, and coming out of high school he was ranked the 151st quarterback in his class. This morning he signed a deal to stay at Oregon State through 2027, and Pete Thamel at ESPN had it first. He is from Rolesville, North Carolina. At Rolesville High School he threw for 3,701 yards and 46 touchdowns as a junior. As a senior he threw for 3,925 yards and 53 touchdowns with three interceptions the whole year. More than 9,400 yards and 121 touchdowns before he ever left home. The recruiting services made him the 151st quarterback in the country and the 67th player in his own state. His offers were Elon, Wofford, Boston College, Miami of Ohio and Mercer. He took Mercer, which is in Macon, Georgia and plays in the FCS. He got there as a backup. Two games into his true freshman year they gave him the job. He threw for 3,596 yards and 34 touchdowns. He went over 300 yards eight times in eleven games. Against VMI he put up 533 and five touchdowns in a 62-0 win, and that is still the Mercer record. Mercer won the Southern Conference. Then they gave him the Jerry Rice Award, which goes to the best freshman in FCS football at any position. On January 11 he signed with Oregon State. Oregon State had just gone 2-10. When the Pac-12 came apart they were one of two schools nobody took. They had hired JaMarcus Shephard, who had never been a head coach anywhere. And they already had a quarterback. Maalik Murphy had started at Texas and at Duke. Atkinson beat him out in August, and when Shephard has been pressed on how a kid out of the FCS took that job off a quarterback with two Power Four schools on his record, the answer has not gotten any longer than this. "Braden just rose to the top." 376 yards at Houston, ranked 23rd in the country. 399 against Texas Tech, ranked 13th. Those were the first two games he ever played at this level and Oregon State lost both of them. Then 333 and five touchdowns. 301. 427. 409 and five more. 347. Through seven games he had 2,604 yards, which is 372 a game. He is at 3,169 now, with 25 touchdowns and three interceptions, and nobody in America has thrown for more. Oregon State is 5-4. On Saturday his throwing hand came down on a helmet in the third quarter against Texas State. He did not come back, and the Beavers lost 42-21. Shephard said Monday he is hopeful for Boise State. James Crepea at OregonLive reported late last month that Oregon State was working to keep him. Atkinson sent the question to his agent, and said he was "extremely proud of" Jesse Legree, the freshman who leads the country in receiving and had already signed to come back. He is a sophomore and he has an agent. This morning the quarterback signed too. The 151st quarterback in his high school class is the best one in America this season, and he is staying at the school nobody wanted either.