Eight Quarterbacks named first Manning Award Stars of the Week of 2020

Fans Vote on Facebook to Select Overall Manning Player of the Week

NEW ORLEANS – The Manning Award, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, has named eight quarterbacks as its “Stars of the Week.” College football fans can now go to the Allstate Sugar Bowl Facebook page to vote for what they think was the best performance from this past weekend. When voting closes on Thursday at 11 a.m. (Central), the top vote-getter will be announced as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week.

VOTE HERE!

The Manning Award was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in 2004 to honor the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that includes the candidates’ bowl performances in its balloting.

Manning Award Website

This week’s eight Manning Award Stars of the Week are:

Jason Bean, North Texas (11-of-18, 217 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, QBR: 95.8

Bean, making his first career start, also rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown as he led the Mean Green to a school-record for total yards (721) in a 57-31 win over Houston Baptist.

Shane Buechele, SMU (26-of-36, 367 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, QBR: 60.2)

Buechele, who tossed his sixth career 50-yard TD pass, notched his eighth career 300-yard passing game as he led the Mustangs to a 31-24 road win over Texas State.

Gavin Hardison, UTEP (17-of-28, 212 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, QBR: 58.5)

Hardison, making his first career start, tallied a career-high in completions and passing yards as he keyed the Miner’s 24-14 win over Stephen F. Austin.

Tyler Johnston III, UAB (17-of-25, 143 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, QBR: 56.7)

Johnston, who moved into seventh place all-time in UAB career passing yards, led the Blazers to a 45-35 victory over Central Arkansas, their Conference USA record 19th straight home victory.

Desmond Trotter, South Alabama (16-of-27, 299 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INT, QBR: 86.4)

Trotter, who tallied career-highs in passing yards and total offense (340 yards), led the Jaguars to a 32-21 road win over Southern Miss, their first season-opening victory since 2016.

Grant Wells, Marshall (16-of-23, 307 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INT, QBR: 89.4)

Wells, a redshirt freshman, completed the first eight passes of his career en route to the Marshall record for passing yards in a debut as he led the Thundering Herd to a 59-0 win over Eastern Kentucky, it’s 10th straight season-opening victory.

Brady White, Memphis (26-of-36, 275 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, QBR: 60.5)

White tossed four TD passes for the fifth time in his career while moving within 370 yards of third place all-time in passing yards at Memphis as the Tigers pulled away from Arkansas State for a 37-24 victory.

Zach Wilson, BYU (13-of-18, 232 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, QBR: 73.2)

Wilson led the Cougars to scores on five of their six first-half drives as they rolled to a 55-3 road victory over Navy – BYU’s largest margin of victory over an FBS foe since 2009.

While the Manning Award selected 30 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List, additional quarterbacks are expected to be added to the Watch List later in the season. Ten finalists will be selected and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

In its first 16 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 12 different schools and from four different conferences. The Big 12 Conference (Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) and the Southeastern Conference (Joe Burrow, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) lead the way with five Manning Award honorees each, while and the Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) has had four Manning Award winners. LSU (Burrow and Russell) joins Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and Young) as the only schools with 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.

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. Seventy-one players from 65 different schools were honored during the 2019 season and 377 different quarterbacks from 127 schools have been recognized since 2011.