Former Alabama QB Layne Hatcher, who transferred from the Crimson Tide in April, has had a great season, and was honored this week with the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year award.

Hatcher redshirted at Alabama in 2018, as he sat behind QB Tua Tagovailoa and backups Jalen Hurts and Mac Jones.

Hatcher, who’s now at Arkansas State, has thrown for 2,500 yards and 23 touchdowns in eight games since he took over as Arkansas State’s starting QB.

Following a season-ending injury to quarterback Logan Bonner, Hatcher stepped into a starting role in the fifth game of the season and quarterbacked the squad to a 5-3 Sun Belt record. The Little Rock, Arkansas native threw for at least 300 yards in five of his eight starts and completed multiple touchdown passes in each of those games.

He ended the regular season by completing 177-of-259 passes for a 68.3 percentage that ranks as the second highest in school history.

Coming out of high school, Hatcher was a 3-star dual-threat quarterback in the 2018 class. He was the No. 53 dual-threat quarterback in the 2018 class and the No. 24 overall recruit from the state of Arkansas, per the 247Sports composite. His recruitment saw Alabama offer him a scholarship after it originally gave him a chance to be a preferred walk-on spot. Arkansas State initially offered Hatcher a grayshirt.