Villanueva Becomes First Player Assigned to Twisters under New Coach
Published on October 9, 2007 under arenafootball2 (af2)
Arkansas Diamonds News Release
(North Little Rock, AR) - Arkansas Twisters quarterback Brian Villanueva has been assigned to the team by the areanfootball2 office. He is the first player assigned to the Twisters since Chris Siegfried was announced as the new coach.
Villanueva completed his second year with the Twisters in record setting fashion. He became the first Twisters' quarterback since Ricky Hebert in 2002 to finish the season with a passer rating of over 100.0. Villanueva finished the '07 season with a rating of 100.64. He completed 210 of 359 pass attempts for 2632 yards, 56 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in his first season as starting quarterback. Villanueva had his best game against Bossier-Shreveport where he threw for 386 yards and nine touchdowns, both career highs, on a broken foot he suffered on the first drive of the game. He missed five games over the course of six weeks due to the foot injury and led the Twisters to the playoffs for the second straight year.
The Las Vegas native was first assigned to the Twisters before the start of the 2006 season and spent the year as the backup to Walter Church, playing the majority of the season on special teams. He was four of five on pass attempts for 25 yards and one touchdown.
Villanueva played four years in the NIFL with four different teams. Most recently, he played with San Angelo in '05, passing for 1178 yards, 22 touchdowns, with 11 interceptions. He also threw three 2-point conversions and ran for four more touchdowns. He also saw playing time with Evansville in '04, Tri-City in '03 and Louisiana in '02.
Villanueva started his college career at West Hills Community College and led them to a Graffiti Bowl Championship in '98. He later transferred to Fort Valley State and led the team to the Division II playoffs and was named a two-time All-SIAC quarterback. He also earned Honorable Mention on the Black College All-American team.
Villanueva played his high school football with El Dorado High School in Las Vegas where he earned All-Nevada State and All-Sunrise Conference honors.
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- Villanueva Becomes First Player Assigned to Twisters under New Coach - Arkansas Diamonds
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