Auburn’s Bo Nix named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS – Bo Nix, a junior from Auburn University, has been selected as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earns the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Facebook contest.

Nix, a Pinson, Ala., native, completed 21-of-26 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing for 42 yards and a score, connecting on a 71-yard touchdown late in the third quarter to hold off a Razorback comeback attempt and lead Auburn to a 38-23 SEC road win over No. 17 Arkansas.

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The 6-foot-3, 214-pound signal caller distributed his 21 completions to 10 receivers and helped put away the game as he led the Tigers on a 12-play, 75-yard drive that chewed up 6 minutes and 11 seconds, culminating on Nix’s 23-yard touchdown run with 2:30 to play. This is Nix’ second Manning Award Quarterback of the Week honor as he won it once during his freshman season in which he was also named the SEC Freshman of the Year.

Nix and the Tigers will have an open date this week before hosting Ole Miss on Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.

The competition was very close this week with less than 20 votes separating the top two. Utah’s Cameron Rising came in just behind Nix and Caleb Williams of Oklahoma followed with the third most votes. Rising completed 21-of-33 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing for 59 yards and a score, as the Utes erased a 14-point deficit in a 35-21 Pac-12 victory over No. 18 Arizona State. Rising was stellar in the second half completing 13-of-15 passes for 140 yards. Williams completed 18-of-23 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns while also rushing for 66 yards with a 41-yard touchdown dash to lead Oklahoma to a 52-31 Big 12 win over TCU. He is the first Sooner true freshman to start since 1990.

The Manning Award selected 32 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List and will make 15 midseason additions on Friday. Ten finalists will be selected and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

In its first 17 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 (Mac Jones, Joe Burrow, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with six 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. LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and Young) have each had two different winners.

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.