Baker Mayfield‘s collegiate career may be over, but he’s not finished collecting some hardware from this level.
Thursday, the Allstate Sugar Bowl announced that Mayfield has been named as the winner of the 2017 Manning Award. The award, named in honor of the quarterbacking Mannings — Archie, Peyton and Eli — is the only one to take into account a quarterback’s performance in the postseason.
“I would like to thank the Allstate Sugar Bowl for creating this award in our family’s name 14 years ago,” said Archie Manning in a statement. “It is an honor to have our name associated with the top quarterback in the nation each year. I would also like to congratulate Baker Mayfield, who capped a tremendous career with an outstanding senior season to earn this honor. To say he took a different path to success would be an understatement. I doubt there’s ever been a player who walked on to two different teams and reached this level of success.”
The 2017 Heisman Trophy winner won this honor over a field of finalists that included J.T. Barrett (Ohio State), Kelly Bryant (Clemson), Sam Darnold (USC), Jalen Hurts (Alabama), Lamar Jackson (Louisville), Trace McSorley (Penn State), McKenzie Milton (UCF), Mason Rudolph (Oklahoma State), Jarrett Stidham (Auburn) and Khalil Tate (Arizona).
Clemson’s Deshaun Watson had been the winner of the last two Manning Awards.