Arch Manning Named SEC Offensive Player of the Week and a Manning Award Star After the Missouri Win
Monday brought the paperwork for Saturday's performance: Arch Manning is the SEC's Offensive Player of the Week and a Manning Award Star of the Week — his fourth career SEC weekly honor.
AUSTIN — Arch Manning's Missouri performance now has its honors. The Texas senior quarterback was named the Southeastern Conference's Offensive Player of the Week and a Manning Award Star of the Week on Monday, via a Texas release carried by On3.
The award rests on the numbers from Saturday's 34-20 road win over No. 18 Missouri: Manning completed 28 of 38 passes (73.7 percent) for 297 yards and three touchdowns, all of them of more than 20 yards — a 24-yard score to Derrek Cooper that tied the game 7-7, a 25-yard strike to Jermaine Bishop Jr. that tied it again at 20-20, and a 23-yard touchdown to Raleek Brown with just over five minutes left that gave Texas the lead for good. It is Manning's fourth career SEC weekly honor and his second SEC Offensive Player of the Week selection this season.
The streak behind the honor is the larger story. Over Texas' three-game winning streak Manning has completed 62 of 88 passes for 729 yards and seven touchdowns, plus two rushing scores, and in his last two games he has thrown six touchdowns without an interception. On the season he is 168 of 254 for 2,024 yards and 18 touchdowns, and 19-5 as a starter. Texas' six straight wins over AP Top 25 opponents are the longest such streak in the FBS, and Manning's five career wins over AP Top 10 opponents are the most of any active FBS quarterback. He was also named a Top 10 finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award on Nov. 6.
Next comes a homecoming he is determined to treat as a business trip. Manning and the Longhorns (7-2, 4-2 SEC) travel to Baton Rouge to face No. 24 LSU at 6:30 p.m. Central on Saturday on ABC. The New Orleans native downplayed the return on Monday: 'We're trying to go 1-0 this week. I really don't have any legacy, you know, I have no family that went to LSU. I'm from New Orleans, which is an hour from Baton Rouge. So there's no real, there's no connection, really. It's not about me at all this week,' he said, in remarks reported by Horns247's Eric C. Henry and carried by ClutchPoints.
