Washington State’s Luke Falk repeats as Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

Luke Falk, a senior from Washington State University, 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.

This is the second week in a row that Falk has earned the honor, as well as the fifth time in his career. He completed 34-of-51 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns on his way to becoming the Pac-12’s all-time leader in completions in a 30-27 upset of No. 5 USC. The Logan, Utah, native connected on 10-of-12 fourth-quarter passes for 90 yards helping the Cougars to snap a 15-game home losing streak to ranked opponents. It was also the Cougars’ first regular season win over a ranked team since 1992.

Falk is tied with former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota for second all-time in Pac-12 history with 105 career touchdown passes. He will have the chance to pass the former Duck star and Heisman Trophy winner against Mariota’s alma mater this Saturday as the Cougars head to Eugene for a 7 p.m. CT Pac-12 battle with the Ducks. Former USC star Matt Barkley holds the Pac-12 record with 116 passing touchdowns.

Falk’s top competitors this week were Chase Litton of Marshall and Pitt’s Max Browne. Litton, who has thrown TD passes in 25 straight games, completed 21-of-34 passes for 233 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-21 win over Cincinnati for its first road win since Oct. 31, 2015. Browne, who completed 28-of-32 passes for 410 yards and four touchdowns, completed his first nine passes on the way to a career-high in passing yards and touchdowns as he led the Panthers to a 42-10 win over Rice.

Facebook Voting

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. The 10 finalists for the honor will be announced on Thursday, November 30 and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Manning Award

In its first 13 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 11 different schools and from four different conferences. 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) lead the way with four Manning Award wins each, while Texas is the only school with two different winners (Colt McCoy and Vince 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.

In addition to the Manning Award’s yearly honor, each week during the regular season, eight quarterbacks are recognized as Manning Quarterbacks of the Week. Sixty-one players from 59 different schools were honored during the 2016 season.