Gatorade Indiana Football Player of the Year

Since 1985, Gatorade has annually selected a Player of the Year. The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, is indicative of Indiana’s best high school football player.

The 1985 winner, Jeff George, was also named Gatorade's National Football Player of the Year, as well.

Since the Indianapolis Star Mr. Football award was created in 1992, which also honors the top football player in Indiana, there have been six athletes who have won both Mr. Football and the Gatorade Player of the Year award. They are: Bo Barzilauskas (Bloomington South, 1993), Earl Haniford IV (Martinsville, 1995), Rex Grossman (Bloomington South, 1998), Clayton Richard (McCutcheon, 2002), Paul McIntosh (Evansville Reitz, 2007), Morgan Newton (Carmel, 2008) and Gunner Kiel (Columbus East, 2011).