Cameron Ward, 2024’s national leader in touchdown passes as well as the NCAA record-holder for career touchdown passes, has been selected as the winner of the 2024 Manning Award, presented to the top quarterback in the nation. Ward is the first Miami quarterback to earn the honor, which started in 2004. He’s the 4th player from the ACC to win the award.
The Manning Award, now in its 21st year, was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl to honor the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that takes into consideration the candidates’ bowl and playoff performances in its balloting. The award is voted on by a panel of local and national media, as well as each of the Mannings.
Ward’s selection as the Manning Award winner adds to a postseason accolades list that includes ACC Player of the Year, the Davey O’Brien Award and a trip to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist.
“We had quite a competition for the Manning Award this season,” said Archie Manning. “There were so many outstanding quarterbacks that deserved recognition for their accomplishments, but the overall performance of Cam Ward lifted him to the top with our voters. He led the nation in touchdowns and set the NCAA record for career touchdown passes. Not only that, he led Miami to its first 10-win season since 2017. Congratulations to Cam on being the winner of the 2024 Manning Award.
In addition to leading the Hurricanes to a 10-win season, Ward was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and the winner of the ACC Player of the Year honor, a first for a Miami player. He completed 305-of-454 passes for 4,313 yards (second in the nation) and 39 touchdowns (No. 1 in the country) with just seven interceptions. His Quarterback Rating (QBR) of 88.0 was also tops in the nation. The native of West Columbia, Texas, was a consensus All-American earning recognition from the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), the Associated Press, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), The Sporting News, and the Walter Camp Foundation
“It’s been a privilege for the Sugar Bowl to work with the Manning family for over 20 years to present the Manning Award,” said Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley. “We’re adding another outstanding honoree to our list of winners in Cam Ward, who turned in arguably the greatest season in the storied history of Miami football. We look forward to hosting him in New Orleans soon to officially present him with the Manning Award.”
Ward’s 39 touchdown passes shattered the Mamii record for touchdown passes in a single season, surpassing Steve Walsh’s previous UM standard of 29, set in 1988. His 4,313 passing yards and 305 completions broke the school records set by Bernie Kosar in 1984 (262 completions, 3,642 yards). He also posted the best single-season completion percentage (67.2), breaking the mark set by Tyler Van Dyke in 2023 (65.8).
Other finalists for this year’s Manning Award were: Carson Beck (Georgia), Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss), Quinn Ewers (Texas), Dillon Gabriel (Oregon), John Mateer (Washington State), Kyle McCord (Syracuse), Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), Kurtis Rourke (Indiana), and Shedeur Sanders (Colorado).
In its first 21 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 15 different schools and from four conferences. The Southeastern Conference (Jayden Daniels, Stetson Bennett, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with nine Manning Award honorees, while the Big 12 Conference (Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (Ward, Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) have each had five winners.