Wallace Named to Manning Award Watch List

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WCBI/Ole Miss Athletics) – Bo Wallace has been added to yet another watch list, as the Ole Miss quarterback made the preseason list for the Manning Award on Friday.

The Manning Award, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, goes to college football’s top quarterback each year. Honoring the college football accomplishments of Ole Miss greats Archie and Eli Manning, and former Tennessee Volunteer Peyton Manning, it is the only quarterback award that includes the candidates’ bowl performances in its balloting.

(ESPN)

Wallace, who was previously named to watch lists for the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards, passed for the third-most yards (2,994) and fourth-most touchdowns (22) in Ole Miss history last year en route to capturing the C Spire Conerly Trophy as the state’s top collegiate player. The junior from Pulaski, Tenn., finished top five in the SEC in points, total offense and passing yards in his first season in Oxford. He also participated in the Manning Passing Academy this offseason.

Other Rebels named to watch lists this preseason include Donte Moncrief (Biletnikoff Award), Denzel Nkemdiche (Nagurski Trophy, Lombardi Award), Evan Swindall (Rimington Trophy) and D.T. Shackelford (Lott IMPACT Trophy, Butkus Award).

This year’s list of quarterbacks was selected in conjunction with the release of ESPN’s new Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) – the top 30 returning quarterbacks according to the QBR make up the Manning Award Watch List. The winner will still be selected by a voting panel, which includes national media and each of the Mannings, after the bowls.

Complete Manning Award Watch List

“This is always an exciting time of year for college football players, coaches and fans,” said Archie Manning. “ESPN has come up with an interesting new statistical measure of quarterbacks so we decided to use the QBR to determine our Watch List, but we want to remind everyone that every quarterback in the country remains eligible to win this honor and we’re looking forward to seeing how things play out on the field.”

Total QBR measures a quarterback’s contributions to scoring on each play (passing, rushing, sacks, fumbles, and penalties) accounting for game context (down, distance, yard line, time remaining, and score) and adjusted for opponent strength.  It is based on a 0-100 scale and 50 is average.

This year’s Watch List includes players from all 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. The Mountain West Conference leads the way with six honorees, while the Southeastern Conference has five quarterbacks on the list and the Pac-12 adds four.