Lynch Named Manning Award Finalist

University of Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch has been named one of 12 finalists for the Manning Award.

The Manning Award is the only quarterback honor that takes the candidates' bowl performance into consideration in its balloting. Created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the award is named in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning.

The other finalists for the award announced on Wednesday were Brandon Allen (Arkansas), Trevone Boykin (TCU), Connor Cook (Michigan State), Brandon Doughty (Western Kentucky), Kevin Hogan (Stanford), Chad Kelly (Ole Miss), Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma), Dak Prescott (Mississippi State), Keenan Reynolds (Navy), Greg Ward, Jr. (Houston) and Deshaun Watson (Clemson).

Lynch's resume is headlined by a season performance in which he has completed 280-of-406 passes for a school record 3,670 yards and 28 touchdowns. All told, Lynch has established 12 game, season and career records during the 2015 seasons.

Lynch set a Memphis game record for passing with 447 yards at Tulsa while his 464 yards of total offense against Cincinnati also established a new school mark. Along his 3910 yards of total offense establishing a new season record, Lynch is on target to break season marks for completion percentage (.690 currently) and average yards per play (currently 8.0).

Earlier Wednesday, Lynch was named to the American Athletic Conference's post-season first-team. Lynch also won the final Manning Award QB of the Week competition. Lynch was one of eight Manning Award "Stars of the Week" announced earlier in the week and in a fan vote on Facebook had 1,604 votes and 361 shares.

"I am very pleased with this outstanding group that was selected as our finalists," Archie Manning said. "I appreciate the time and expertise of our voting panel who made the effort to get us to these final 12. The skills and accomplishments of some very impressive young men who didn't make the finalist list shows just how competitive it is to be selected. Now we get to see how these guys do on an even bigger stage – conference championship games and bowl games."

Statistically, the group of finalists excels in nearly every category as they average over 3,000 yards passing and over 26 touchdowns. The group has thrown for nearly five and a half touchdowns for every interception they have lost. In addition, seven of the finalists ran for over 400 yards on the year with seven of them tallying seven or more rushing touchdowns. Seven of the 12 led their teams to double digits in victories, while all 12 led their teams to bowl eligibility. Five of this year's Manning Award finalists will be competing in conference championship games this weekend.

In its first 11 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 10 different schools and from four different conferences. One of the more unique aspects of the Manning Award is the fact that it takes into account the quarterbacks bowl performances, in addition to the regular season. Ten of the 11 Manning Award winners won bowl games during the season they won the honor; the lone loss was by Colt McCoy in the 2010 BCS Championship game when he suffered an early injury. In addition to McCoy, six other Manning honorees (Matt Leinart, Vince Young, Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota) led their teams to the national championship game (BCS or CFP).

All of 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.

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