Mississippi State’s Will Rogers named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS (September 15, 2022) – Will Rogers, a junior from Mississippi State 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.

Facebook Voting

Rogers, a Brandon, Miss., native, completed 39-of-49 passes for 313 yards and had four touchdowns through the air in the Bulldogs’ 39-17 road win over Arizona. It marked the second straight week Rogers threw for over 300 yards and 4-plus touchdowns. He currently ranks first among Power 5 quarterbacks in passing yards per game (381.5) and leads the SEC in several categories. The win over Arizona marked Rogers’ 15th career 300-yard game, which is the school record.

Rogers and the Bulldogs return to action on Saturday when they head to Baton Rouge to face LSU, in what will be both team’s SEC opener, at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN.

The closest competition for Rogers and his Bulldog supporters in the Facebook voting contest came from Georgia Southern’s Kyle Vantrease and Frank Harris of UTSA. Vantrease completed 37-of-56 passes for a career-high 409 yards and one touchdown in a 45-42 defeat of Nebraska. The sixth-year QB stepped up when it mattered most, connecting on a 27-yard strike and then rushing for the go-ahead touchdown with 36 seconds remaining. Harris completed 32-of-45 passes for a career-high 359 yards, marking his fifth career 300-yard game, with three touchdowns in a 41-38 OT victory over Army on the road.

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.