Expectations are high for quarterback Reese Poffenbarger as he enters his sophomore campaign at UAlbany looking to build on last year’s Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Rookie of the Year season.

“The confidence level was obviously a lot higher. I didn’t have to worry about winning over the team as a leader and we were able to focus on executing plays, install, getting through that stuff quicker in camp. So that has been good,” Poffenbarger said.

Poffenbarger was named to the 2023 Walter Payton Award Preseason Watch List, an award given to the most outstanding offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision, and quickly showed why in the season opener against Fordham. The quarterback threw for 253 yards and four touchdowns in the 34-13 win, and also connected with 11 different targets.

“First game, it really went to show,” he said. “I don’t have any type of predetermination before the snap of who I’m throwing the ball to. I’m truly just reading the defense and throwing to the open guy.”

Poffenbarger has continued to shine since, and threw for 239 yards and three touchdowns in a conference-opening win over No. 16 Villanova.

The drive to be one of the best offensive players in the FCS dates to when Poffenbarger grew up around an endless amount of competition in Middletown, Md.

“It’s a house full of athletes, and no matter what, you are always in the back of your head trying to one up the other one,” Poffenbarger said.

As the oldest, Poffenbarger always had to beat his younger siblings, whether it was his brothers in football or his sister, Saylor, in basketball, who is now a guard at Arkansas.

“It’s always been a dynamic like that. But as we’ve grown older, we’ve became more friends than competitors,” Poffenbarger said of the relationship with his sister. “She’s always there for me. I’m there for her whenever she needs it.”

Poffenbarger’s younger brother was recently offered a football scholarship to UNLV.

“It definitely plays a part,” he said. “A lot of other things play a part in it as well. My mom played professional basketball. My dad is really the person who turned me into the man that I am and the competitor that I am.”