Football | 1/7/2025 9:15:00 AM

Utah Tech football landed six players on a pair of postseason academic awards lists this week. 

Utah Tech senior punter Andy Day and redshirt freshman quarterback Reggie Graff were both named to the 2024 Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association (FCS ADA) Academic All-Star Team on Tuesday. 
 
The pair of Trailblazers were two of 54 student-athletes across the country to be named to this prestigious list. In addition, Utah Tech was one of only 12 total programs to place multiple student-athletes on the list. 
 
Day, who carries a 3.45 GPA as an exercise science major, finished the 2024 regular season as both the NCAA Division I FCS and FBS national leader in both total punts (87 - school record) and punt yardage (3,662 - school record) and t-34th in the FCS in yards/punt (42.1 ypp). 

The senior kicker was named United Athletic Conference Specialist of the Week (9/2) after he tied his school record with 10 punts for 468 yards (46.8 ypp) with two kicks downed inside the 20-yard line. He recorded 14 punts of 50-plus yards, including a career-best 77-yarder in the season finale at Southern Utah (11/23 - #3 in school history), and recorded only three touch backs.
 
Day closed his career as Utah Tech's all-time leader in both total punts (248) and punt yardage (10,398) and third in career average (41.92 ypp). He wound up with 41 total punts of 50-plus yards, and 60 punts downed inside the 20-yard line with only 15 total touch backs.

Graff, who owns a 3.90 GPA as a business management major, played in all 12 games with five starts and led the Trailblazers in both passing and rushing yards. He threw for 1,467 yards on 128-of-225 passing and a team-high 10 touchdowns, while he rushed 123 times for 442 yards and a team-best four touchdowns. 
 
The redshirt freshman signal caller was named Stats Perform FCS National Offensive Player of the Week and UAC co-Offensive Player of the Week (11/4) after he led Utah Tech to a 34-21 home upset win over then #9-ranked Central Arkansas (11/2). 

In that win, Graff became the first Trailblazer in program history, and the first FCS player this season, to throw for, catch, and run for a touchdown in the same game. In all he threw for 211 yards on 26-of-35 passing and two TDs, ran for a career-high 90 yards on 24 carries with one TD, and caught a 3-yard TD pass on "The Philly Special" just before halftime.

Two weeks later vs. West Georgia (11/16), he set a school FCS-era record by completing his first 15 pass attempts, and wound up with 272 yards on 22-of-37 passing and two TDs. In the season finale at Southern Utah (11/23), he threw for a career-high 386 yards on 31-of-57 passing and three touchdowns (also a career high) and had a career-best four touchdowns on the day (1 rushing).

In addition, Graff, along with senior linebacker Malakai Fakahua, redshirt junior offensive lineman Nolan Reynolds, sophomore safety Brevin Hamblin, redshirt sophomore long snapper Ryan Kean, and redshirt sophomore kicker Ilya Uvaydov were all named to the 2024 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team.