Kansas’ Jalon Daniels named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS – Jalon Daniels, a junior from the University of Kansas, 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.

Facebook Voting

In a win at Houston, Daniels completed 14-of-23 passes for 158 yards and three touchdowns, while carrying 12 times for 123 yards and two scores. Daniels’ five touchdown performance was the first of his career with multiple passing and rushing touchdowns and he became the first Jayhawk since Todd Reesing in 2009 to throw and rush for two touchdowns in the same game. Daniels completed passes to 11 different receivers in the game.

Daniels has been selected in back-to-back weeks as a Manning Award Star, with this week being his first win in the fan vote for the Quarterback of the Week honor. It’s also the first time a Jayhawk quarterback has earned this recognition.

The Lawndale, Calif., product has led Kansas to a 3-0 record for the first time since 2009, completing 47-of-70 for 566 yards and seven touchdowns on the season. Daniels also leads KU in rushing, carrying 27 times for 237 yards and three touchdowns this season.

Daniels and the Jayhawks return to action on Saturday when they host undefeated Duke at 11 a.m. at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised nationally by FS1.

The closest competition for Daniels and the Kansas faithful in the Facebook voting contest came from Georgia’s Stetson Bennett and Doug Brumfield from UNLV. Bennett completed 16-of-23 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns while also running for a touchdown as he led the top-ranked Bulldogs to a 48-7 blowout of SEC East rival South Carolina on the road. Brumfield, meanwhile, completed 21-of-27 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns while running for 100 yards and two more scores in a 58-27 victory over North Texas.

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 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 (B. Young and Jones) joins LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and V. 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.