PLANO, Texas - Matt Barr (Belvidere/Belvidere), Western Illinois' record-setting quarterback, finished second in the Walter Payton Award voting. The 24th annual award, sponsored by The Sports Network/Fathead.com, was presented Thursday night in a ceremony at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas.

Barr is the only Western quarterback to ever finish among the 'Top 3' in the voting, and matches Aaron Stecker's runner-up finish in 1997. Western Illinois was one of five Football Championship Subdivision programs to have a finalist for the three major national awards: Walter Payton, Buck Buchanan Award for National Defensive Player of the Year (linebacker Kyle Glazier), and Eddie Robinson Award for National Coach of the Year (Mark Hendrickson).

Dating back to 1999, Western Illinois is the only FCS program to have at least a runner-up finish in all three Sports Network major awards in the same year (Payton, Buchanan and Robinson Awards).

Stephen F. Austin senior quarterback Jeremy Moses picked up 37 of the 130 first-place votes totaling 372 points. Barr received 17 first-place votes, finishing with 262 points. Junior quarterback DeAndre Presley of Appalachian State was third with 182 points.

The Second Team All-American helped Western recorded the best wins turnaround from one year to the next, going from 1-10 in 2009 to 8-5 this year and advancing to the Second Round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs, losing to top-seed Appalachian State. In fact, the plus-7 win improvement is also the best turnaround in Missouri Valley Football Conference history.

"I want to congratulate not only Matt, but also coach Mark Hendrickson and Kyle Glazier for finishing second in their respective voting," said Director of Athletics Dr. Tim Van Alstine, who was in attendance along with Coach Mark Hendrickson, and family and friends of Matt. "The 2010 season will go down as one of the most special years in Western Illinois Football history. Under coach Hendrickson's guidance, our student-athletes and coaches showed a great deal of determination and heart to have the best turnaround in program history, qualify for the NCAA playoffs and win our opening round playoff game. Our showing tonight getting three runner-up finishes caps off a great season not only for the Leatherneck Football program, but for the entire Western Illinois University community."

Barr completed 229-of-393 passes for 3,410 yards and 27 touchdowns to 10 interceptions with a 148.74 passing efficiency. He also rushed for 449 yards and seven TDs, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. The four-year starter currently ranks eighth nationally in passing efficiency, sixth in total offense, 12th in passing yards and ninth in points accounted for.

He broke 17 Western Illinois game, season and career records during his four-year career - shattering the season yards, season touchdowns and season total offense (3,859) marks. Barr became the only Leatherneck quarterback to throw for 400 yards in a game twice in their career, doing so in consecutive weeks.

This year also accomplished the rare feat for a Leatherneck quarterback, throwing for 200 yards (221) and rushing for 100 yards (125) in the same game (vs. Sam Houston State). The senior also surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards, doing so in his final game.