Michigan State’s Payton Thorne named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week for Week Three

Michigan State Spartans redshirt sophomore quarterback Payton Thorne continues to receive national accolades this week following his four-touchdown and zero-turnover performance against the Miami Hurricanes. Thorne was named the Allstate Sugar Bowl Manning Award Quarterback of the Week for Week Three.

Thorne, a Naperville, Illinois native, had a huge performance against the U at Hard Rock Stadium, completing 18-of-31 passes for 261 yards. He tied a career-high with four touchdown passes in the game (he also had four touchdown passes the previous week against Youngstown State), and led the Spartans to a 21-point fourth quarter performance to ice the game with a 38-17 final result over the No. 24 Hurricanes.

Thorne is just the second quarterback in school history to throw for four scores in back-to-back games, the other being Connor Cook. He was named the Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week and was named one of the “Great 8 performers” by the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award for Week Three as well.

Overall on the season, Thorne has completed 62 percent of his passes (48-for-77) for 726 yards, which puts him at sixth in the league in passing yards per game (242.0). He also ranks first in the conference in passing efficiency (180.1) and touchdown passes (nine).

The weekly honor for the Manning Award is decided by Facebook voting. Thorne was the overwhelming favorite as he racked up over 2,500 votes, besting the next highest vote-getter, Ole Miss’s Matt Corral, who received just over 1,100 votes. No other quarterback in this week’s poll received more than 215 votes.

The Manning Award, now in its 18th year, is an annual award given to the top quarterback in college each year. No Big Ten quarterback has ever won the award. A preseason watch list of 32 quarterbacks is created each year with additional quarterbacks added to the watch list later in the season. Ten finalists are selected from that watch list and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

No. 20/21 Michigan State (3-0, 1-0 Big Ten) gets a visit from the Nebraska Cornhuskers (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten) Saturday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. in Spartan Stadium. The game will be televised on FS1 and can be streamed on the FOX Sports app.