While the Heisman Trophy winner will be selected before Ohio State’s bowl game, C.J. Stroud will have another award to make his case for in the Buckeyes’ final game of the year.
Stroud was named Friday as one of 10 finalists for this year’s Manning Award, which honors college football’s best quarterback. Unlike most major college football awards, the Manning Award winner isn’t selected until after the postseason is complete, allowing voters to take bowl game performances into consideration – which Archie Manning, one of the award’s namesakes along with his sons Peyton and Eli, expects to make an impact on who wins this year’s award.
“There have been so many quarterbacks who’ve had outstanding seasons. They’re making this year’s competition for the Manning Award as wide-open as I can remember,” Archie Manning said in a news release. “This is definitely a year where we’re very pleased to have the opportunity to see how everyone plays for the full season – right through the bowl games and the playoff – before deciding who will be the winner.”
Stroud, who was already named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and Quarterback of the Year and is one of three finalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, is joined on the list of Manning Award semifinalists by Virginia's Brennan Armstrong, Ole Miss’ Matt Corral, Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman, Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, Mississippi State’s Will Rogers, Nevada’s Carson Strong, Alabama’s Bryce Young and Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe.
Stroud ranks third among all Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks in passing efficiency (182.2), fourth in passing yards per game (351.1), fifth in touchdown passes (38) and yards per passing attempt (9.8), sixth in completion percentage (70.9) and seventh in total passing yards (3,862).
