2023 Harlon Hill Award Finalists
For the first time since 2018, the Hillsdale College football program has a finalist for the sport's most prestigious award at the NCAA Division II level.
Senior tailback Michael Herzog was announced as one of the nine finalists for the 2023 Harlon Hill trophy on Wednesday morning. The Harlon Hill is considered by many to be the NCAA Division II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, and is awarded annually by the Little Rock Touchdown Club, in conjunction with the Great American Conference, to the most outstanding football player at the NCAA DII level for a given season. The Harlon Hill Trophy was first awarded in 1986 and has been handed out every year since with the exception of 2020.
Players are nominated for the award by their institution's sports information directors, and two finalists from each Super Region are selected by a regional vote by each the SIDs of programs in each of the four Super Regions. An additional ninth candidate advances in 2023 due to a tie in the voting for the final spot in Super Region 3. The nine finalists advance to a national ballot where all 176 of the division's school and conference SIDs will select the 37th winner of the award.
Herzog is the only running back and one of just two non-quarterbacks to be named a finalist in 2023. He's joined from Super Region 1 by Brayden Long, a junior quarterback from Slippery Rock, who also was selected from a pool of six nominees in the region. The other seven nominees are Delta State quarterback Patrick Shegog, Valdosta State quarterback Sammy Edwards, Central Missouri quarterback Zach Zebrowski, Emporia State quarterback Braden Gleason, Southern Nazarene quarterback Gage Porter, Colorado School of Mines quarterback and 2022 Harlon Hill recipient John Matchoa, and Central Washington safety Tanner Volk.
This honor is the biggest in a long line of them this season for the senior tailback from Windsor, Ontario, who earlier became Hillsdale's first G-MAC Co-Player of the Year since 2018, as well as earning repeat first-team All-G-MAC honors.
Herzog put together a stellar campaign in 2023 as a senior for the Chargers, breaking or tying five G-MAC records while also ranking among the top running backs in the country at the NCAA DII level throughout. He led the G-MAC in carries (230), rushing yards (1,333), rushing touchdowns (21), yards per game average (121.2), scoring (11.5 points per game), All-Purpose yards (172.2 per game), single game rushing attempts (28 against Michigan Tech) and single-game rushing touchdowns (five against Ohio Dominican), while ranking in the top 10 in the nation at the NCAA DII level in all of those categories, and in the top five in many of them.
In the process of his historic season, Herzog broke G-MAC records for single season rushing touchdowns, finishing with 21 to surpass Daouda Sylla of Findlay's old record of 19, and, with 126 total points scored, also broke the record for points in a single season of 114 held by Sylla and former Hillsdale great David Graham. All told, his 2023 season ranks in the top four in G-MAC history in rushing yards, touchdowns, attempts, rushing yards per game and all-purpose yards.
His epic game in Hillsdale's 35-17 win over Ohio Dominican to finish the 2023 season and cap Herzog's career will live in legends for years to come. Against a defense that was surrendering 88 yards on the ground on average entering the contest, Herzog rushed for 175 yards on 20 carries and five touchdowns, breaking the G-MAC record for rushing touchdowns in a single contest and tying the Hillsdale record for single game rushing touchdowns, held jointly by Gordon Piatt (1939), Nate Clark (1955) and Willis Miles (1982).
It's an impressive finish for a player who came to Hillsdale as a wide receiver before moving to tailback, and then missed both the spring 2021 Covid season and the fall 2021 campaign with a knee injury suffered in practice. The painful adversity didn't shake Herzog in the slightest, as he attacked rehab with ferocity and returned to the squad in 2022 to finish his career as one of the all-time great running backs in Hillsdale College history. He ends his career ranked eighth all-time at Hillsdale in career rushing yardage with 2,273 accumulated in just two seasons, and his 2023 season ranks in the top 10 all-time at Hillsdale in rushing yards, touchdowns and attempts as well.
Herzog is the 10th Charger to be nominated for the Harlon Hill Award since Hillsdale became an NCAA DII member in 1990, and just the third finalist, joining tailback Joe Glendening in 2011 and quarterback Chance Stewart in 2018. He also joins Chance Stewart as one of only two G-MAC players to be named as Harlon Hill finalists in the 11-year history of the conference.
The winner of the Harlon Hill trophy will be announced in December during the week before the NCAA DII National Championship game.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan