Thompson-Robinson Added to Midseason Manning Award List
On Friday, The Manning Award, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, announced that UCLA's Dorian Thompson-Robinson was one of 15 additions to its 2021 Watch List. Finalists for the honor will be determined by a selected panel of national media covering college football, as well as each of the Mannings. That list will be released on Thursday, December 2 and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Thompson-Robinson is 15th in the NCAA and first in the Pac-12 with a 14.05 yard average on each completion this season. He is 12th in the NCAA and the conference leader in points responsible for (108). Thompson-Robinson threw his second interception of the season at Arizona with a gap of 99 passing attempts from his only other pick of the year in the second quarter against LSU. This past week at Washington, he completed all eight passing attempts on the 90-yard fourth quarter game-winning drive. His 21-26 passing effort (.807) in the Washington game marked his third career contest in which he completed at least .800 of his passes. (13-15 at Cal 2018 .866; 30-36 at USC .833 2020).
The Bruin signal caller is set to move up the all-time school charts in several categories and currently sits 6th on the UCLA list in career passing yards (6,551- next on that list is Cory Paus, 1999-02 with 6,877). Thompson-Robinson is up to 5th on the school career-total-offense list (7,451) with Drew Olson (2002-05) next in line in fourth (8,324). Thompson-Robinson (53-5th) is now taking aim on Josh Rosen (2015-17) who holds down 4th on the school career TD passes list with 59.
The Manning Award was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that includes the candidates' bowl performances in its balloting. One of the more unique aspects of the Manning Award is the fact that it takes account of the quarterbacks' bowl performances, in addition to the regular season. Fourteen of the 17 Manning Award winners won bowl games during the season they won the honor. Twelve Manning Award honorees led their teams to the CFP Semifinals or a BCS Championship game appearance.