University of Richmond Athletics
Udinski Earns Prestigious Bill Dudley Award
12/10/2022 | Football
Richmond, Va.— University of Richmond quarterback Reece Udinski (North Wales, Pa.) has been named the recipient of the 2022 Bill Dudley Award, presented yearly to the top college football player in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Spending his final year of eligibility with the Spiders, Udinski wrote himself into the Richmond and NCAA FCS record books.
Playing at VMI and Maryland before Richmond, he ended his career with 11,474 passing yards at the FCS level, placing him 17th all-time in the FCS record book and second among current quarterbacks this season. He also averaged a nation-leading 29.08 completions per game.
Known for his accuracy, Udinski's highest season completion percentage came with Richmond, going 378 on 515 attempts with five interceptions for .734 percent—a number that ranked second in the country this season.
A First Team All-CAA quarterback, Udinski led the Spiders to the third-highest total offense in the CAA at 424.1 yards per game, throwing for 29 touchdowns while rushing in four in his final season.
Udinski is third all-time in season passing yards for the Spiders, becoming just the third quarterback to throw for over 3,000 yards in a single season. He's first all-time in season attempts and his 58 from the Elon game rank second all-time, while his 42 completions from that day rank first all-time for any Spider. His season completion percentage of 73.4 is also the highest-ever by a Spider.
He helped Richmond earn its first trip to the playoffs since 2016 and its first-ever playoff shutout victory with a 41-0 win against Davidson in the first round, connecting on 28 of 31 pass attempts for his highest completion percentage (90.3%) of the season. With his performance, he set the FCS playoffs single-game record for completion percentage.
The two other finalists for the prestigious award were William & Mary linebacker John Pius and James Madison quarterback Todd Centeio.
Udinski is the 33rd winner of the award, which has been handed out since 1990 and is named after Bill "Bullett Bill" Dudley, who is considered one of the greatest all-time football players from the Commonwealth of Virginia. A native of Bluefield, Dudley was an All-American at the University of Virginia, winning the Maxwell Award in 1941 before being drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1942. In 1946, was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player and is enshrined in both the College Football Hall of Fame (1956) and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1966).
Udinski finished third in the Dudley Award balloting during the COVID impacted football year, of 2020-21, when FBS teams played in the fall and the other teams in the state played in the spring. Udinski was the quarterback at VMI at the time, guiding the Keydets to the Southern Conference title. He placed third in the Dudley voting that year behind eventual winner Malik Willis of Liberty and Khalil Herbert of Virginia Tech. Both Willis (Titans) and Herbert (Bears) are now in the NFL.
Richmond has had only one previous Dudley Award winner before Udinski in Marc Megna, a defensive lineman for the Spiders who won in 1998—the year Udinski was born.
Udinski is the fifth quarterback from the CAA to be honored with the Dudley Award. The other four are Rodney Landers, (JMU, 2008), Taylor Heinicke (ODU, 2012), Vad Lee (JMU, 2014 & 2015) and Bryan Schor (JMU, 2016). With Lee winning twice, quarterbacks from the CAA have now won the award six times.
After only winning seven of the first 24 Dudley Awards, a quarterback has now won eight of the last nine and four Dudley Award-winning quarterbacks are on NFL rosters. Taylor Heinicke of ODU, is starting for the Washington Commanders, Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech, 2010) is with the New York Giants, Bryce Perkins (Virginia 2018, 2019) is signed to the Los Angeles Rams and Malik Willis (Liberty, 2020-21) is with the Tennessee Titans.
Bill's son, Jim Dudley, made the presentation to Udinski during an awards presentation show airing on WTVR CBS6, Richmond's local CBS affiliate. Bill, who lived in Lynchburg, passed away in February 2010.
Udinski, who will continue training in pursuit of an NFL career, graduates from Richmond with a master's degree in liberal arts.
Spending his final year of eligibility with the Spiders, Udinski wrote himself into the Richmond and NCAA FCS record books.
Playing at VMI and Maryland before Richmond, he ended his career with 11,474 passing yards at the FCS level, placing him 17th all-time in the FCS record book and second among current quarterbacks this season. He also averaged a nation-leading 29.08 completions per game.
Known for his accuracy, Udinski's highest season completion percentage came with Richmond, going 378 on 515 attempts with five interceptions for .734 percent—a number that ranked second in the country this season.
A First Team All-CAA quarterback, Udinski led the Spiders to the third-highest total offense in the CAA at 424.1 yards per game, throwing for 29 touchdowns while rushing in four in his final season.
Udinski is third all-time in season passing yards for the Spiders, becoming just the third quarterback to throw for over 3,000 yards in a single season. He's first all-time in season attempts and his 58 from the Elon game rank second all-time, while his 42 completions from that day rank first all-time for any Spider. His season completion percentage of 73.4 is also the highest-ever by a Spider.
He helped Richmond earn its first trip to the playoffs since 2016 and its first-ever playoff shutout victory with a 41-0 win against Davidson in the first round, connecting on 28 of 31 pass attempts for his highest completion percentage (90.3%) of the season. With his performance, he set the FCS playoffs single-game record for completion percentage.
The two other finalists for the prestigious award were William & Mary linebacker John Pius and James Madison quarterback Todd Centeio.
Udinski is the 33rd winner of the award, which has been handed out since 1990 and is named after Bill "Bullett Bill" Dudley, who is considered one of the greatest all-time football players from the Commonwealth of Virginia. A native of Bluefield, Dudley was an All-American at the University of Virginia, winning the Maxwell Award in 1941 before being drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1942. In 1946, was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player and is enshrined in both the College Football Hall of Fame (1956) and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1966).
Udinski finished third in the Dudley Award balloting during the COVID impacted football year, of 2020-21, when FBS teams played in the fall and the other teams in the state played in the spring. Udinski was the quarterback at VMI at the time, guiding the Keydets to the Southern Conference title. He placed third in the Dudley voting that year behind eventual winner Malik Willis of Liberty and Khalil Herbert of Virginia Tech. Both Willis (Titans) and Herbert (Bears) are now in the NFL.
Richmond has had only one previous Dudley Award winner before Udinski in Marc Megna, a defensive lineman for the Spiders who won in 1998—the year Udinski was born.
Udinski is the fifth quarterback from the CAA to be honored with the Dudley Award. The other four are Rodney Landers, (JMU, 2008), Taylor Heinicke (ODU, 2012), Vad Lee (JMU, 2014 & 2015) and Bryan Schor (JMU, 2016). With Lee winning twice, quarterbacks from the CAA have now won the award six times.
After only winning seven of the first 24 Dudley Awards, a quarterback has now won eight of the last nine and four Dudley Award-winning quarterbacks are on NFL rosters. Taylor Heinicke of ODU, is starting for the Washington Commanders, Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech, 2010) is with the New York Giants, Bryce Perkins (Virginia 2018, 2019) is signed to the Los Angeles Rams and Malik Willis (Liberty, 2020-21) is with the Tennessee Titans.
Bill's son, Jim Dudley, made the presentation to Udinski during an awards presentation show airing on WTVR CBS6, Richmond's local CBS affiliate. Bill, who lived in Lynchburg, passed away in February 2010.
Udinski, who will continue training in pursuit of an NFL career, graduates from Richmond with a master's degree in liberal arts.
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