2002 Midwest Region Candidates

KEITH HECKENDORF

Quarterback - St. Cloud State

6-1, 200, Junior, Mosinee, Wisconsin

2002 Highlights: Team Captain. North Central Conference Most Outstanding Offensive Back for 2002. Three-time North Central Conference Player of the Week, d2football.com Honorable Mention Player of the Week, North Central Conference All-Academic Team, Verizon All-District V College Division First Team. He completed a school record tying five touchdown passes in back-to-back games versus Northern State and South Dakota and had a third five TD performance against Minnesota State, Mankato. He had a season high 305 yards passing against South Dakota State. He had a season high 29 pass completions and 57 pass attempts versus Northern Colorado. He led the Huskies to a 9-2 overall record and second place in the North Central Conference with a 2-0 mark. The nine wins is the most for a Husky team since the 1989 squad won ten games and the NCC Championship. In addition, SCSU jumped out to a 5-0 start, the best since the 1976 season. 

2002 Key Stats:  Heckendorf has started all 11 games for the Huskies He completed 203
passes in 349 attempts for 2,817 yards and 37 touchdowns. He had a season and career long TD pass completion for 88 yards against New Haven. He averaged 8.1 yards per pass and 256.1 yards passing per game. He had a 58.2 pass completion percentage and a 154.1 pass
efficiency mark. He is responsible for setting or tying nine school records.  He is the current record holder for pass completions in a season with 203 and a career with 529; most yards gained passing in a game with 369, season 2,817 and a career 6,790; most TD passes in a game with five (three times in 2002, once in 2001), season with 37 and career with 71.  He also holds the record for most yards gained rushing and passing in a season with 2,944. He set the North Central Conference record for TD passes in a season with 24 (the old mark was 22). Heckendorf led the NCC in total offense (270.0 ypg) and pass efficiency (144.7) and ranked second in passing average per game (258.0 yards). 

Career: He became the starter in the second game of his sophomore season and has missed just one start (due to injury) in 30 games for the Huskies. He has passed for at least 1,500 yards in each of his three seasons and is only the second quarterback in school history to pass for over 6,000 yards. Under his leadership, SCSU has gone from 1-9 in 2000 to 4-7 in 2001 and 9-2 in 2002. SCSU has been nationally ranked for the first time since the 1994 season and finished fifth in the Midwest Region. In 2001, he was named to the All-North Central Conference Second team, Academic All-NCC Honorable Mention and Verizon Academic All-District V College Football Second team.  Heckendorf was voted SCSU's Offensive MVP in
2001.

NCAA Rankings:

Passing Efficiency: Ranks 8th in Division II - 154.1

Total Offense: Ranks 10th in Division II - 267.6