Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award

"Unitas Award" redirects here; not to be confused with Unitas Medal.

The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is given annually in the United States to the nation's top upperclassman quarterback in college football. Candidates are judged on accomplishments on the field as well as on their character, scholastic achievement, and leadership qualities.^[1] The award was established in 1987 and named after Johnny Unitas, who was nicknamed "The Golden Arm".^[2] Unitas played his college career at the University of Louisville and set many records in the National Football League while playing for the Baltimore Colts.

Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award

Awarded for	Top upperclassman quarterback in college football
Location	Baltimore, Maryland
Country	United States
Presented by	Golden Arm Foundation
History
First award	Established in 1987
Most recent	Shedeur Sanders, Colorado
Website	www.goldenarmfoundation.com

Winners

These are the award recipients since inception in 1987.^[3]

Year	Player	School	Refs
1987	Don McPherson	Syracuse	[3]
1988	Rodney Peete	USC	[3]
1989	Tony Rice	Notre Dame	[3]
1990	Craig Erickson	Miami	[3]
1991	Casey Weldon	Florida State	[3]
1992	Gino Torretta	Miami (2)	[3]
1993	Charlie Ward	Florida State (2)	[3]
1994	Jay Barker	Alabama	[3]
1995	Tommie Frazier	Nebraska	[3]
1996	Danny Wuerffel	Florida	[3]
1997	Peyton Manning	Tennessee	[3]
1998	Cade McNown	UCLA	[3]
1999	Chris Redman	Louisville	[3]
2000	Chris Weinke	Florida State (3)	[3]
2001	David Carr	Fresno State	[3]
2002	Carson Palmer	USC (2)	[3]
2003	Eli Manning	Ole Miss	[3]
2004	Jason White	Oklahoma	[3]
2005	Matt Leinart	USC (3)	[3]
2006	Brady Quinn	Notre Dame (2)	[3]
2007	Matt Ryan	Boston College	[3]
2008	Graham Harrell	Texas Tech	[3]
2009	Colt McCoy	Texas	[3]
2010	Scott Tolzien	Wisconsin	[4]
2011	Andrew Luck	Stanford	[5]
2012	Collin Klein	Kansas State	[6]
2013	A. J. McCarron	Alabama (2)	[7]
2014	Marcus Mariota	Oregon	[8]
2015	Connor Cook	Michigan State	[9]
2016	Deshaun Watson	Clemson	[1]
2017	Mason Rudolph	Oklahoma State	[10]
2018	Gardner Minshew	Washington State	[11]
2019	Joe Burrow	LSU	[12]
2020	Mac Jones	Alabama (3)	[13]
2021	Kenny Pickett	Pittsburgh	[14]
2022	Max Duggan	TCU	[15]
2023	Jayden Daniels	LSU (2)	[16]
2024	Shedeur Sanders	Colorado	[17]