Hopkins Named Manning Award QB of the Week
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Dylan Hopkins, who had a record-setting day against Hawai’i has been voted as the week eight Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earned the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s online voting contest.
Hopkins, a Maryville, Tenn., native, completed 20-of-25 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns in a Midwest Conference win over Hawai’i. His 20-for-25 day broke the UNM record for completion percentage in a game with a minimum of 20 completions. The senior signal caller connected on a pair of first quarter touchdown passes, then added his third in the third quarter. With Hopkins’ record-breaking performance, he led the Lobos to a 42-21 win on his way to being named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week.
His performance helped the Lobos improve to 3-4 and 1-2 in MW play. This Saturday, they will travel to Nevada to take on the Wolf Pack. The game will air at 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time on CBS Sports Network. He is the second Lobo to earn the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week, as Terry Wilson was the honoree in 2021 after playing New Mexico State.
Hopkins’ closest competitors in this week’s online voting were Braedyn Locke of Wisconsin and Boston College’s Thomas Castellanos. Locke, who made his first career start, connected on a 20-yard touchdown with 7:21 to go to pull the Badgers within three. He then tossed a three-yard scoring pass with 27 seconds to go to lift his team to a 25-21 comeback victory over Illinois on the road – their first-ever Big Ten win when trailing by 14 or more in the fourth quarter. Castellanos ran for 128 yards on 13 carries with two rushing TDs while directing the Eagles to 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points as they earned their third straight win with a 38-23 ACC road decision over Georgia Tech.
The Manning Award selected 30 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List and then added 15 midseason additions to the Watch List on October 19th. Finalists will be named on November 30, and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.
In its first 19 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 (Stetson Bennett, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with eight 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. Alabama (Bryce Young and Jones), LSU (Burrow and Russell), 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.