Ryan Kasdorf is the 2015 Rawlings-NAIA National Football Player of the Year

Ryan Kasdorf, a 6-1, 215 lb. senior quarterback from Newhall, Calif., was named the 2015 Rawlings-NAIA National Football Player of the Year at the NAIA Banquet of Champions held Dec. 18 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Kasdorf is the second Morningside player to win the award in the last three years, joining former Mustang wide receiver Kyle Schuck, who was the 2013 Rawlings-NAIA National Football Player of the Year.

Kasdorf, the 2015 Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Offensive Player of the Year, was named to the 2015 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) NAIA Coaches’ All-America First Team earlier this week.

Kasdorf directed a Morningside offense that averaged 58.9 points per game this season to set a new NAIA national record. The Mustangs also led the nation with an average of 593.1 yards total offense per game.

Kasdorf is this year’s NAIA national leader with 3953 yards passing and 4359 yards total offense and ranks second in the nation with an average of 335.3 yards total offense per game and third with an average of 304.1 yards passing per contest. He had a 191.1 passing efficiency rating to lead the nation in that category for the third year in a row. Kasdorf completed 242 of 374 pass attempts for 64.7 percent with 45 touchdowns and only four interceptions. His 3953 yards passing and 45 touchdown passes are the second highest totals in Morningside history. Aside from his passing exploits, Kasdorf was the Mustangs’ third leading rusher with 406 yards and three touchdowns in 101 attempts for an average of 4.0 yards per carry.

He set school records with 581 yards total offense and 39 pass completions in the Mustangs’ 75-69 quadruple overtime victory against Saint Xavier University in the first round of the 2105 NAIA Championship Series. Kasdorf tied a Morningside record with seven touchdown passes in regular season triumphs against Dakota Wesleyan University and Doane College. Kasdorf passed for a season’s high 459 yards for the fifth highest single-game passing yardage total in Morningside history in the Mustangs’ 55-7 victory against Doane in the regular season finale and rushed for a career-high 125 yards in the Mustangs’ post-season win against Saint Xavier.

Kasdorf passed for 10,932 yards and a school-record 121 touchdowns and rushed for 1315 yards and 14 touchdowns to finish with a school-record 12,247 yards total offense during his Morningside career. Kasdorf, the only quarterback in Morningside history to rush for 1000 yards in a career, set Morningside career records with an average of 331.0 yards total offense per game and a pass completion rate of 67.5 percent. He threw at least two touchdown passes in 30 of his 37 career starts and passed for over 200 yards in 36 of them.

Kasdorf, a three-time first-team All-GPAC selection, was a first-team AFCA NAIA Coaches’ All-American in 2015, a first-team USA College Football All-American in 2014, and a second-team Beyond Sports Network (BSN) All-American in 2013.

Morningside posted a 12-2 record, won a fifth consecutive Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship, and made a 12th consecutive post-season appearance in the NAIA Championship Series, where it lost 30-27 against reigning NAIA National Champion Southern Oregon University in the semifinals during the 2015 campaign.