EMCC’s Ty Keyes caps 2023 season with NJCAA Division I Offensive Player of the Year honor

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – East Mississippi Community College's Ty Keyes continues to reel in the honors for the Lions, as highlighted by Wednesday's announcement of the sophomore quarterback being named the 2023 NJCAA Division I Football Offensive Player of the Year.

Keyes joined NJCAA DI Defensive Player of the Year Daniel Brown of Hutchinson CC and NJCAA DI Coach of the Year Scott Strohmeier of Iowa Western CC as this year's postseason award recipients.

A former prep standout at Taylorsville High School and a bounce-back signal-caller out of Southern Miss, Keyes has earned top offensive player national honors at the junior college level a day after being chosen NJCAA All-American First Team. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound quarterback earlier in the season had been tabbed as the NJCAA Region 23 Most Valuable Player and MACCC All-North Division Offensive Player of the Year. In addition, Keyes was a three-time MACCC Offensive Player of the Week recipient and an NJCAA Offensive Player of the Week selection during Week 4 of the regular season.  

As the field general for head coach Buddy Stephens' 2023 NJCAA runner-up and MACCC champion EMCC Lions (10-3), Keyes led NJCAA Division I football this past season by passing for 3,350 yards and throwing for 33 touchdowns while having completed 58.2 percent (263-of-452) of his passes. He also finished second nationally with an average of 257.7 passing yards per game on the year, highlighted by a 472-yard, six-touchdown effort on 27-of-35 (77%) passing during a 65-17 home win over Holmes on Sept. 21.

Along with becoming East Mississippi Community College's ninth NJCAA All-America quarterback during the Stephens coaching era, Keyes joins former EMCC record-setting signal-caller Bo Wallace as recipients of the NJCAA's Offensive Player of the Year award. In leading the 2011 EMCC Lions to their first of five national championships during an eight-year span (2011-18) before going on to play at Ole Miss, Wallace established NJCAA single-season standards for most passing yards (4,604), most yards of total offense (4,810) and most touchdowns thrown (53) while completing 336-of-502 (67%) passes.

In addition to having become the first EMCC quarterback since 2022 Walter Payton Award winner Lindsey Scott Jr. to have thrown for 3,000 or more yards in a season for the Lions, Keyes also became the first EMCC signal-caller since 2023 Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Chad Kelly, of the 2022 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts, to have tossed 30 or more touchdown passes in a season for East Mississippi. Scott, who led the EMCC Lions to their 2017 NJCAA championship, went on to collect most outstanding offensive player national honors in FCS football a year ago at the University of the Incarnate Word. Kelly, who went on to star at Ole Miss, quarterbacked the Lions during their 2014 national championship season.

Prior to having signed with Southern Miss in the 2021 recruiting class out of Taylorsville High School, Keyes was a two-time Mississippi Gatorade Football Player of the Year and three-time Class 2A Mr. Football by the Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC). He led the Taylorsville Tartars to a four-year composite record of 58-4 and three MHSAA Class 2A state championships. Keyes finished his prep playing career with 14,525 passing yards and 155 touchdowns.

Previously rated as an ESPN Top 300 player and listed as the nation's No. 7 dual-threat quarterback as a four-star recruit in 2021, Keyes saw action in seven total games at Southern Miss during a pair of injury-shortened seasons (2021-22). He completed 43-of-82 (52.4%) passes for 636 total yards and six touchdowns with the Golden Eagles.