UVA free safety Quin Blanding will be honored with the General Douglas MacArthur Award for Outstanding College Athlete at the Norfolk Sports Club’s 72nd Annual Jamboree, announced Wednesday (Feb. 8) by the Norfolk Sports Club. The General Douglas MacArthur Award is given each year to the state’s top collegiate athlete from a high school in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The award will be presented to Blanding at the jamboree on Wed., March 22 at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel.
Blanding (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.), a 2014 graduate of Bayside High School, finished his junior year in 2016 ranked No. 2 in the ACC and No. 9 in the nation with 10.0 tackles per game. His 10.0 tackles per game average were the most in the nation by a defensive back. Blanding has finished No. 2 in the ACC in tackles three seasons in a row, twice behind teammate Micah Kiser.
He was voted first-team All-ACC by the league’s media and also earned first-team all-league honors from the ACC head coaches, the Associated Press and Phil Steele Football. He was named a second-team All-American by The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated and Athlon Sports tabbed him a fourth-team All-American. The Touchdown Club of Richmond named him its Defensive Back of the Year Award winner for the state of Virginia, while he also earned first-team VaSID all-state honors for the second year in a row.
Blanding will enter his senior season No. 9 all-time at UVA with 358 career tackles, which will be the most among all returning FBS players next season.
This is the second year in a row a UVA football player and former Bayside High School student-athlete will be honored with the General Douglas MacArthur Award. Last year former UVA running back Taquan Mizzell earned the award.
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