Florida Atlantic’s Daniel Richardson earns Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

Junior Leads Owls to Key AAC Road Win

NEW ORLEANS (October 19, 2023) – Daniel Richardson of Florida Atlantic has been voted as the week seven Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earned the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s online voting contest.

Richardson completed 31 of 38 passes for 382 yards and threw three touchdowns in a key AAC road game against USF. He also set career bests for passing yards and completion percentage. With this performance, the Miami product helped the Owls break open a tight game at halftime with 35 unanswered points in a 56-14 victory. A transfer from Central Michigan, this is Richardson’s first season with the Owls and only his third start in the blue and red.

His performance helped the Owls improve to 3-3 and 2-0 in AAC play. This Saturday, they will host AAC rival UTSA, which is also undefeated in league play, at 6 p.m. CST on ESPN+.

Richardson’s closest competitors in this week’s online voting were Diego Pavia of New Mexico State and Stanford’s Ashton Daniels. Pavia, who tallied his second career 200-yard passing/100-yard rushing game (he ran for 115 yards and a touchdown), is the first Aggie to account for 400 yards of total offense since 2017. He led them to a 27-13 CUSA win over Sam Houston State helping them reach four wins faster than any season since 1992. Daniels, who also ran for 39 yards, led eight straight scoring drives in the second half as the Cardinal manufacture the largest comeback in program history, erasing a 29-0 deficit to shock Colorado, 46-43, in a thrilling double-overtime Pac-12 road game.

The Manning Award selected 30 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List and will announce its midseason addition to the Watch List on Thursday. Finalists will be named on November 30, and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

In its first 19 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 14 different schools and from four different conferences. The Southeastern Conference (Stetson Bennett, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with eight 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), LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield), and Texas (McCoy and Vince Young) have each produced a pair of Manning Award 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.