Washington State’s Gardner Minshew earns Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

Gardner Minshew, a senior from Washington State, 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 Facebook contest.

Facebook Voting

Minshew completed 30-of-40 passes for 430 yards, his fourth 400-yard game of the year, and a career-high five touchdowns as helped the Cougars rally from a third-quarter deficit to defeat Pac-12 rival Oregon State on the road, 56-37.

Minshew is a graduate transfer who played the past two seasons at East Carolina. He was also selected as a Manning Award Star of the Week last year while playing for the Pirates.

“He continues to get better as the receivers get used to him,” Washington State Coach Mike Leach said. “The receivers around him are young guys.”

Washington State has a bye this weekend and then will host Oregon in a critical Pac 12 matchup on Oct. 20.

Minshew’s top competitors were Colorado’s Steven Montez and Brock Purdy of Iowa State. Montez notched his third 300-yard game of the year as he helped the Buffaloes improve to 5-0 for the first time since 1998 with a 28-21 Pac-12 win over Arizona State. Purdy, a true freshman who had played one series before Saturday, came off the bench and added 84 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown as he directed the Cyclones to a 48-42 Big 12 road win over No. 25 Oklahoma State.

Manning Award

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.