Matt Barkley Named Finalist For Manning Award

Quarterback Matt Barkley, who threw for 3,273 yards and 36 touchdowns in 11 games, was named one of 10 finalists for the Manning Award.

AllState Sugar Bowl created the award in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning.

"We think we have another great group of quarterbacks as our finalists," said Archie Manning. "Once again, there were so many outstanding performances by so many different guys, this was very tough to decide on 10, and I'd like to thank our selection committee for their time and effort. But what this is really about is the players themselves and I want to thank them all for their hard work all season long. I'm very much looking forward to the conference championships and bowl games to really see who steps up in the big-game situations."

The other finalists include Clemson's Tajh Boyd (3,550 yards, 34 TD's), Kansas State's Collin Klein (2,306 passing yards, 787 rushing yards, 34 total TD's), Northern Illionis' Jordan Lynch (2,750 passing yards, 1,611 rushing yards, 39 total TD's), Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel (3,419 passing yards, 1,181 rushing yards, 43 total TD's), Oregon's Marcus Mariota (2,511 passing yards, 690 rushing yards, 34 total TD's), Alabama's AJ McCarron (2,507 yards, 25 TD's), Ohio State's Braxton Miller (2,039 passing yards, 1,271 rushing yards, 28 TD's), Georgia's Aaron Murray (3,201 yards, 30 TD's) and West Virginia's Geno Smith (3,597 yards, 37 TD's).

The winner is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, Jan. 9. It is the only quarterback award that takes each candidates' bowl-game performances into consideration.

Former USC quarterback Matt Leinart was the inaugural winner of the award in 2005.