Stats Perform released its 30-player preseason watchlist for the 2025 Walter Payton Award, and three Big Sky Conference players are on it.

Montana State running back Adam Jones, Montana running back Eli Gillman and Sacramento State running back Jamar Curtis are the Big Sky selections.

Curtis, a senior who transferred in from Lafayette, is a two-time finalist for the Payton Award, given to the Football Championship Subdivision’s top offensive player. He rushed for 1,139 yards and scored 19 touchdowns in 2024, when he was the Patriot League’s Offensive Player of the Year.

Gillman, a junior, won the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in FCS in 2023; last season he rushed for 1,104 yards and 15 touchdowns. Jones, a sophomore, set MSU freshman records for rushing yards (1,172) and rushing

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