ATLANTA — Georgia Tech senior quarterback Haynes King and senior running back Jamal Haynes are among the 80 players on the official watch list for the 2025 Maxwell Award, which is presented annually to the most outstanding player in college football.
Tech is one of 17 schools with multiple representatives on the Maxwell watch list. The Maxwell Award has been presented to college football’s player of the year since 1937.
King enters the 2025 season ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 quarterbacks by ESPN.com. In just two years as a Yellow Jacket, he has moved into the top 10 in school history in passing yards (4,956 – sixth), total offense (6,280 yards – fifth), touchdown passes (41 – t-fourth) and touchdowns responsible for (62 – t-fourth).
Last season, he became the first NCAA Division I FBS player in at least 69 years (dating back to 1956) with no less than 2,000 passing yards, 10 touchdown passes and a 70% completion percentage, as well as two or fewer interceptions in a season. His 72.9% completion rate in 2024 and 37 touchdowns responsible for in 2023 are both single-season school records, while the 72.9% completion percentage in ’24 also set a new Atlantic Coast Conference record.
Haynes enters the ’25 campaign as the first Georgia Tech running back to rush for at least 900 yards in back-to-back seasons since Jonathan Dwyer in 2008 and 2009. As a junior in 2024, he amassed 1,110 total yards from scrimmage (944 rushing, 166 receiving) and 12 touchdowns (nine rushing, three receiving), en route to earning all-ACC recognition for the second-straight year.
As a sophomore in 2023, Haynes moved from wide receiver to running back during fall camp and went on to become Georgia Tech’s first 1,000-yard rusher in six years. His 1,257 all-purpose yards in ’23 (1,053 rushing, 151 receiving and 47 on kickoff returns) included 128 in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl versus UCF. He was named MVP of the Yellow Jackets’ 30-17 Gasparilla Bowl victory.
The Maxwell Football Club partners with Pro Football Focus and Phil Steele Publications as selection committee partners for the Maxwell Award. Semifinalists for the 89th Maxwell Award will be announced on Nov. 11, with three finalists unveiled on Nov. 25. The winner will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show, which will be held on Dec. 11.
King, Haynes and the Yellow Jackets open the 2025 season on Friday, Aug. 29 with a highly anticipated intersectional matchup at Colorado (8 p.m. ET – ESPN), before beginning their home slate against Gardner-Webb on Saturday, Sept. 6 (3:30 p.m. – ACC Network Extra).
Georgia Tech has posted consecutive winning seasons for the first time in a decade and returns five all-ACC honorees from last season’s squad, including all-America guard and first-team all-conference selection Keylan Rutledge. Other top performers returning for the Yellow Jackets in 2025 include all-ACC selections DT Jordan van den Berg, LB Kyle Efford, Haynes and WR Malik Rutherford, as well as two of the league’s top quarterbacks in King and redshirt freshman Aaron Philo.
