Zeon Chriss of Louisiana earns Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS (October 12, 2023) – Zeon Chriss of Louisiana has been voted as the week six Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earned the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s online voting contest.

Chriss completed 13 of 17 passes for 205 yards and also ran for 67 yards. With 5:54 to go in the game, Chriss tossed a five-yard touchdown pass and then ran for an eight-yard TD with 2:21 to go to lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 34-30 comeback victory over Texas State in Sun Belt action. The redshirt freshman was making his third career start after earning his first start on September 23 against Buffalo.

His performance helped the Ragin’ Cajuns improve to 4-2 and 1-1 in Sun Belt play. After a bye this weekend, the Ragin’ Cajuns will resume play on October 21 when they host Georgia State at Cajun Field for a Sun Belt conference showdown at 7.p.m. CST kickoff on ESPNU.

Chriss’ closest competitors in this week’s online voting were Jacob Zeno of UAB and UTSA’s Frank Harris. Zeno, who tallied his career-high for TD passes, was on-target on long-scoring plays as he connected on touchdowns of 75, 61, 58 and 49 yards to lead the Blazers to their most yards since 2018 in a 56-35 AAC win over USF. Harris, who added a rushing touchdown and surpassed the 10,000-yard milestone for passing yards, made his return to the lineup after missing nearly a month with an injury and led the Roadrunners to a 49-34 road victory in their first American Athletic contest.

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 19 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 14 different schools and from four different conferences. The Southeastern Conference (Stetson Bennett, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with eight 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 (Bryce Young and Jones), LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield), and Texas (McCoy and Vince Young) have each produced a pair of Manning Award 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.