Ballin4God Football Player of the Year: Callahan Roper

Photo Courtesy: Ryan Zeigler

This year’s Ballin4God Football Player of the Year is Marion Wildcats senior quarterback Callahan Roper.

Roper had one of the most dominant seasons and honestly one of the most dominant careers we’ve seen from a Southern Illinois player in a long time. He broke multiple school records along the way and helped lead Marion to another playoff appearance, their 19th since 2005.

Roper’s Senior Season Stats:

Passing Yards: 3,040

Passing Touchdowns: 37

Completions: 203/320 (63 percent)

Interceptions: 10

Passer Rating: 120.1

Roper’s Career Stats:

Passing Yards: 6,236

Passing Touchdowns: 69

Roper threw for 6,236 career yards breaking Matt Brown’s previous record of 6,001. He also set the new mark for passing yards in a season with 3,040. Brown’s old record was 2,936. Then he broke the career touchdown record with 69 and the single season touchdown record with 37. Brown had 57 for his career and 34 in a season.

He had some big time weapons too. Junious Thomas finished with 1,033 receiving yards and caught 60 passes with 12 touchdowns. His other main target, Sam Adkins, who’s walking on at SEMO, had 742 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Roper won three Player of the Week awards this season. One of those came in Week 9 when he broke his own record for most passing yards in a game with 435. Earlier this year he hit 406 in the win over Collinsville. He’s the only quarterback in Wildcats history to throw for at least 400 yards in a game. In his final four high school games he threw for 1,352 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Other players in the mix for Player of the Year were Archie Goewey, Johnathan Brown, Jace Weaver, Jeremiah Jones, Jonathan Miller, Junious Thomas, Kenny Bratton, Riley Spencer and more.

2023: Blayne Sisson (Mt. Carmel, Il)

2024: Samuel Kollbaum (Nashville, Il)

2025: Callahan Roper (Marion, Il)