Hawai‘i’s Cole McDonald Earns Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

Cole McDonald, a sophomore from the University of Hawai‘i, has been selected as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earns the win over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Social Media contest.

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McDonald, who also rushed for a touchdown, completed 29-of-46 passes for a career-high 452 yards and three touchdowns, including a 10-yard overtime delivery which keyed the Rainbow Warriors 31-30 Mountain West road victory over San Diego State.

At the team’s annual awards celebration to conclude the regular season, McDonald was named the Coach June Jones Offensive MVP award winner. The La Mirada, Calif., native became the sixth UH quarterback to surpass 3,000 yards in a season and is among the nation’s leaders in six categories. On the year, he has thrown for 3,790 yards and 35 touchdowns while rushing for four more scores.

In McDonald’s first season as the Rainbow Warriors’ signal caller, they registered their first winning regular-season since 2010 and are bowl eligible.

McDonald’s top competitors were Kyler Murray of Oklahoma and Syracuse’s Eric Dungey. Murray, who also rushed for 114 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown, led the Sooners to a wild 59-56 victory over No. 13 West Virginia to clinch the Big-12 regular season championship. Dungey, who added three rushing touchdowns to finish with a career-best six total scores, led the Orange to a 42-21 ACC road victory over Boston College.

In its first 14 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 (Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) joins the Southeastern Conference (Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) with four Manning Award winners each, while Texas is the only school with two different winners (McCoy and 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.