Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers has been named to the preseason Manning Award Watch List for the second season, which honors the nation’s top collegiate quarterback. It is the only award that takes candidates’ bowl performances into account.

Should Ewers win the award, he would join Vince Young and Colt McCoy as the only Longhorns to take home the honor.

Ewers is entering his fourth year in college and third in Austin, amassing over 5600 yards and 37 touchdowns in his two seasons as a starter. The quarterback was likely not a top option for last year’s award, but the gunslinger had a strong 2023 where he led Texas to a Big 12 Championship, a college football playoff apperaance, and more passing yards per game than all but eight power five quarterbacks.

Ewers, however, is firmly in the running for the award in 2024. DraftKings Sportsbook has Ewers as the third-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy, something LSU’s Jayden Daniels did last year when he won the Manning Award. Of the eight quarterbacks mentioned who had more passing yards per game than Ewers in 2023, just three remain in college football, and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders is the only one who stayed with the same program.

In adjusted yards per passing attempt, a stat that weighs touchdowns and interceptions to give each passing attempt a quarterback makes into a yardage value, Ewers is just one of nine returning power five quarterbacks to be north of nine, a number usually used to cut off the best passer in the nation. Ewers also threw the second most passes of that group, meaning players like Alabama’s Jalen Milroe could see some regression with more attempted passes.

Another factor in Ewers’ favor is a potential lack of an elite running game after the injury of CJ Baxter. Though Baxter’s season-ending LCL injury is a huge loss for the Longhorns, it does help Ewers in working towards awards like the Manning or Heisman. Sarkisian will ask Ewers to make more big-time throws than before with the lack of running back depth on the squad, and his collection of new pass-catchers is sure to keep him near the top of many passing metrics.