Allstate Sugar Bowl announces Manning Award finalists

Eleven Quarterbacks Will Vie for Annual Honor Through Bowl Season

NEW ORLEANS – The Manning Award, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, announced 11 finalists for this year’s award on Friday. The winner will be announced after the bowls in January. The Manning Award was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that takes the candidates’ bowl performances into consideration in its balloting.

The finalists for this year’s Manning Award are:

“We have an exceptional group of quarterbacks as our finalists for this year’s Manning Award,” said Archie Manning. “These young men have shown they can do it all on the football field. And most importantly, they win. Five will be playing for conference championships this weekend and all 11 have their teams headed to bowl games this year.”

Statistically, the group of finalists excels in nearly every category as they have combined for a total of 296 touchdowns with over 38,000 yards – all 11 have thrown for 3,000 yards and four ran for more than 300 yards. The group has thrown more than five times as many touchdown passes as interceptions.

The list includes five seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and one freshman. The SEC leads the way with four honorees and the Pac-12 has three selections. The ACC has two finalists and the Big Ten and Big 12 each have one.

In its first 18 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 13 different schools and from four different conferences. The Southeastern Conference (Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with seven Manning Award honorees, while the Big 12 Conference (Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) has had five winners. The Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) has had four Manning Award winners. Alabama (Bryce Young and Jones) joins LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and Vince Young) as the only schools with two different winners.

Statistically, the Manning Award has seen a wide-range of quarterbacks. Fifteen of the Manning Award men threw for over 3,000 yards in their winning campaign, including 4,000-yard seasons from Burrow, Griffin III, Jones, Marcus Mariota, Mayfield, Murray, Ryan, Watson (twice), Winston and Bryce Young. On the other hand, Manziel, Murray, Newton, Watson (in 2015) and Vince Young were all 1,000-yard rushers during their Manning years.

Perhaps most impressive among the statistics of the quarterbacks recognized by the Manning Award is touchdowns scored. Thirteen of the winners accounted for over 40 touchdowns during their successful seasons – Burrow’s 65 touchdowns (60 passing, five rushing) broke Mariota’s record (58 in 2014) for touchdowns by a Manning Award winner.

One of the more unique aspects of the Manning Award is the fact that it takes account of the quarterbacks’ bowl performances, in addition to the regular season. Fifteen of the 18 Manning Award winners won bowl games during the season they won the honor. Thirteen Manning Award honorees led their teams to the CFP Semifinals or a BCS Championship game appearance (Burrow, Jones, Matt Leinart, Mariota, Mayfield, McCoy, Murray, Newton, Tebow, Watson, Winston and both Bryce and Vince Young). Eight won national championships (Burrow, Jones, Leinart, Newton, Tebow, Watson, Winston and Vince Young).

Previous Manning Award winners have also factored prominently in the NFL Draft as they all heard their names called on Draft Day. Six honorees were selected No. 1 overall (Burrow, Mayfield, Murray, Newton, Russell and Winston), while four others went No. 2 or No. 3 (Griffin, Mariota, Ryan and Vince Young).

All the Manning Award winners follow in the footsteps of the Mannings themselves. In college, Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning combined for over 25,000 passing yards and 201 touchdowns while playing in 10 bowl games and earning four bowl MVP awards. Archie was the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft, while both Peyton and Eli were selected No. 1 overall.

In addition to the Manning Award’s yearly honor, each week during the regular season, eight quarterbacks are recognized as Manning Quarterbacks of the Week. Sixty players from 58 different schools were honored during the 2022 season and 491 different quarterbacks from 132 schools have been recognized since 2011.