North Carolina State’s Devin Leary named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS – Devin Leary, a sophomore at North Carolina 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 Results

Leary, making his first start of the season, completed 28-of-44 passes for 336 yards and four touchdowns, marking career-highs for completions, passing yards and touchdown passes, as the Wolfpack stunned No. 24 Pittsburgh, 30-29, in an ACC road game.

Trailing by five with 1:44 left in the game, Leary led the Pack on an eight-play, 79-yard drive, finding senior Emeka Emezie in the end zone for the winning score with 23 seconds to play. The duo earned ACC Quarterback of the Week and co-ACC Receiver of the Week honors.

The Sicklerville, N.J., native, became the first Wolfpack QB with 330+ passing yards, four passing touchdowns and no interceptions in a game since Russell Wilson in 2009.

The Pack will conclude its three-game ACC road stretch with a trip to Virginia on Saturday. The game will kick from Charlottesville at 11 a.m. CT and will be televised on the ACC Network.

Leary won this week’s award over BYU’s Zach Wilson and Max Duggan of TCU. Wilson notched his fifth career 300-yard game with 325 total as he completed 24-of-26 passes and two touchdowns, while also rushing for 43 yards and a career-high three touchdowns to lead the Cougars to a 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech for their first 3-0 start since 2014. Duggan completed 20-of-30 passes for 231 yards and rushed for a game-high 79 yards and two touchdowns. He scored his second touchdown with four minutes to go to give the Horned Frogs the lead in a thrilling 33-31 Big 12 road victory over No. 9 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 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.