One last award for former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow won the 2019 Manning Award presented by the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The award is given to the best quarterback in the country.
The Manning honor caps one of the most impressive seasons by a quarterback in college football history. The senior set the NCAA FBS record with 60 touchdown passes while leading the nation with 5,671 passing yards and narrowly missing setting the FBS record for completion percentage – he finished at 76.3 percent as he completed 402 of 527 passes. More impressively, he led the Tigers to a perfect 15-0 season including a dominant 42-25 College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship victory over defending champion Clemson. Burrow was named the Most Outstanding Player of the championship game after throwing for 463 yards and five touchdowns.
“I’ve not sure we’ve ever seen a quarterback have the high level of sustained and consistent excellence against a very challenging schedule that Joe Burrow had this season,” said Archie Manning. “Week-in and week-out, he played elite-level football while leading his team to victory. He simply didn’t have an off-day all season-long, which is amazing. And then in the postseason, he managed to take his game to another level. It’s been a pleasure to watch Joe this year.
“On behalf of the entire Manning family, we would like to thank the Sugar Bowl Committee for its generous and ongoing support of the Manning Award. The Bowl’s role in making this award possible each year is greatly appreciated.”
The Manning Award, now in its 16th year, was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl to honor the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that takes into consideration the candidates’ bowl performances in its balloting. The award is voted on by a panel of local and national media, as well as each of the Mannings.
In addition to the Manning Award, Burrow earned nearly every national honor possible – he won the Heisman Trophy, the AP National Player of the Year award, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Johnny Unitas Award as well as being a unanimous First-Team All-American and the SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
Despite only playing two seasons at LSU after transferring from Ohio State, Burrow completely re-wrote the Tiger record books. He owns school career records for total yards (9,332), touchdown passes (76), completion percentage (.685), passing yards per game (305.9), 300-yard passing games (15), 400-yard passing games (4) and touchdowns responsible for (88: 12 rush, 76 pass). He finished his career having thrown for 300 yards in nine consecutive games and having completed 20 or more passes in 18 straight games, two more LSU records. His 5,671 passing yards this season are an LSU and an SEC record and are tied for the third-most in NCAA FBS history.
He also recorded one of the greatest postseason efforts in history while leading LSU to a 63-28 Playoff Semifinal win over Oklahoma and the championship game victory over Clemson. In the Playoff Semifinal, Burrow completed 29-of-39 passes for 493 yards and an SEC-record tying seven touchdowns while adding a rushing TD. His combined numbers for the two CFP games were 60-of-88 (.682) for 956 yards and 12 touchdowns, as well as a pair of rushing scores.
Other finalists for this year’s Manning Award were: Justin Fields (Ohio State), Jake Fromm (Georgia), Justin Herbert (Oregon), Tyler Huntley (Utah), Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma), Trevor Lawrence (Clemson), Tanner Morgan (Minnesota), Malcolm Perry (Navy), Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama), Kyle Trask (Florida) and Brady White (Memphis).
Previous Manning Award winners have also factored prominently in the NFL Draft as they all heard their names called on Draft Day. Five honorees were selected No. 1 overall (Mayfield, Murray, Newton, Russell and Winston), while four others went No. 2 or No. 3 (Griffin, Mariota, Ryan and Young). Burrow is expected to be a top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.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.
