NEW YORK — College Sports Communicators in association with The Associated Press and the Fiesta Bowl Organization, today named BYU running back Hinckley Ropati and quarterback Gerry Bohanon as candidates for the 2024 Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Presented annually since 2018, the award recognizes college football student-athletes for overcoming injury, illness or other challenging circumstances. The 2024 watch list for the Comeback Player of the Year Award includes 89 college football student-athletes from 67 different schools.
Ropati came to BYU in 2020 as a transfer from Cerritos College in Norwalk, California, where he rushed for 647 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2019. The 5-9, 220-pound senior appeared in 14 games for BYU during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, before missing the 2023 campaign with an injury. As a Cougar Ropati has 36 carries for 189 yards and a touchdown, averaging 5.3 yards per carry. He also has six catches for 97 yards and a touchdown.
Bohanon joined the BYU football team in the offseason after successful years at Baylor (2018-21) and South Florida (2022). In 2021, the 6-3, 225-pound dual-threat quarterback led the Bears to a 12-2 record, a Big 12 Championship and a 21-7 win over Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. After four seasons and 27 games at Baylor, he transferred to USF where he started the first seven games of the 2023 season before suffering an injury that ended his season and kept him out of the 2024 campaign as well.
Following the 2021 season Bohanon was named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and was a semifinalist for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award. In addition, he is a three-time Big 12 All-Academic Team selection and has been on the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll eight times. Bohanon, graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Baylor and is finishing his master’s in sports pedagogy at South Florida.
At the conclusion of the 2024 season three college football student-athletes will be honored as Comeback Player of the Year Award winners at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.
Click HERE for a full list of candidates for the 2024 Comeback Player of the Year Award.