WSU QB John Mateer Named Manning Award Finalist

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Washington State University quarterback John Mateer is one of 10 quarterbacks named as a finalist for the 2024 Manning Award, the Allstate Sugar Bowl announced today. The winner will be announced after the January College Football Playoff National Championship. The Allstate Sugar Bowl created the Manning Award in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that considers the candidates’ bowl performances in its balloting. Cougar quarterbacks Luke Falk (2016) and Gardner Minshew II (2018) were also finalists for the award.

From WSU:

Mateer opened the season setting a school record with six total touchdowns in his first career start, the most by any Cougar quarterback in their first career start. Mateer followed with another school record in the week two win over Texas Tech, setting the top mark for rushing yards by a quarterback with 197 and added two more rushing touchdowns in the win over Washington in Seattle. In the double-overtime win over San Jose State, Mateer became the first player in program history with 300 pass yards and 100 rush yards, recording 501 yards of total offense along the way, the third-best total offense mark in the country this season.

In the win over Hawai’i, Mateer rushed for two touchdowns and threw for three more while completing 23-of-27 passes, the fourth-best completion percentage (85.0) in WSU single-game history. In the win at San Diego State, Mateer rushed for two scores and threw for two scores in his third fourth-quarterback comeback win of the season. Mateer threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in the win over Utah State, threw four touchdown passes at New Mexico and totaled four more touchdowns at Oregon State, two passing and two rushing and rushed for another in the regular season finale against Wyoming.

The Little Elm, Texas native enters the week leading the country with 44 touchdowns responsible for and the only player in the country with 20+passing touchdowns and 10+ rushing touchdowns. The redshirt-sophomore is tied for fourth nationally with 29 passing touchdowns, fifth with 330.4 yards of total offense, fourth in the country with 38 runs of 10+ yards and his 55 missed tackles forced are the most by any quarterback in the country this season. Mateer’s 15 rushing touchdowns are a school-record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback and are second-most by any player in program single-season history. Mateer’s 826 rushing yards are a school-record by a quarterback while his 29 touchdowns passes are ninth-most in WSU single-season history.

The finalists for this year’s Manning Award are:

“It’s been another fun year of college football,” said Archie Manning. “We’ve seen some great quarterback performances at all levels, and the fact we had 36 different players get votes to be Manning Award finalists shows the depth at the position around the country. This year, we get to follow many of them through the newly expanded College Football Playoff, so there’s a lot of football yet to be played. No matter what happens, I’m sure we’ll again have an outstanding winner of the Manning Award following all of the postseason games.”

Statistically, the group of finalists excels in nearly every category as they have combined for a total of 283 touchdowns with nearly 35,000 passing yards – and they get it done with their legs as well, as they’ve combined for 43 rushing touchdowns. The group has thrown for more than three and a half times as many touchdown passes as interceptions.

The list is senior dominated with seven and also includes two juniors, and a sophomore. The SEC leads the way with four honorees, while the Big Ten and the ACC have two and the Big 12 and the Pac-12 each have one.

In its first 20 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 (Jayden Daniels, Stetson Bennett, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with nine 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 (Daniels, Burrow, and Russell) now leads the way with three honorees, while Alabama (Bryce Young and Jones), 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.

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. Seventy-four quarterbacks were honored during the 2024 season and 570 different quarterbacks from 135 schools have been recognized since 2011.