UTSA’s Frank Harris named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS – Frank Harris, a senior from UTSA, 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.

The Schertz, Texas, product completed 28-of-38 passes for 349 yards and six touchdowns, including a 43-yard scoring connection with 6:39 to go, as he led the Roadrunners to a 52-46 Conference USA win over Western Kentucky on the road. He also caught a touchdown pass and contributed 51 rushing yards while setting the school record for total offense and touchdown passes. For his impressive performance, the league tabbed him the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week.

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The 6-foot, 200-pound signal caller received his bachelor’s degree in sociology in May of this year. He has thrown for 1,475 yards and 12 TDs on 127-of-182 passing this season and his 69.8% completion percentage stands 11th in the FBS. Harris improved to 14-6 as a starter with the win and now has completed 352-of-523 passes for 3,591 yards and 27 touchdowns in 21 career games.

Harris and the Roadrunners are off to the best start in school history at 6-0 and are bowl eligible for the second straight season. They will host Rice this Saturday at 5 p.m. CT at the Alamodome and the game will air on ESPN+.

The closest competition this week came from Brennan Armstrong of Virginia and Texas A&M’s Zach Calzada. Armstrong, who notched his fourth 400-yard game of the season, completed 40-of-60 passes for 487 yards and three touchdowns as he led the Cavaliers to a 34-33 ACC road victory over Louisville. The junior QB threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes including the game-winner with 22 seconds remaining. Calzada connected on a 25-yard touchdown pass with 3:00 left in the game and then got the Aggies into position for a game-winning field goal on the final play of the game as Texas A&M shocked No. 1 Alabama, 41-38. On the night, he completed 21-of-31 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns.

While the Manning Award selected 32 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 17 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 (Mac Jones, Joe Burrow, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with six 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. LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and Young) have each had 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.