NEW ORLEANS (November 27, 2024) – Fans have selected Fernando Mendoza of Cal as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earned the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl's online fan voting contest. This is his third win of the season as the "Calgorithm" fans have shown their support once again.
 
Mendoza, a sophomore from Miami, Fla., completed 25-of-36 passes for 299 yards while tying a career-high with three touchdown passes in Cal's 24-21 comeback victory over Stanford. His third touchdown pass of the day turned out to be the game-winner when he connected with Jonathan Brady for a 22-yard score with just 2:40 left in the game to cap a 98-yard drive in which he completed 6-of-7 passes.
 
He became the seventh Cal player to reach 3,000 passing yards in a season and posted the ninth 3,000-yard passing season in school history. In addition to the Manning Award honor, Mendoza also earned his third ACC Quarterback of the Week honor.

Cal will close the regular season by traveling to face No. 9 SMU in Dallas on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
 
The other Manning Award Stars of the Week were Luke Altmyer (Illinois), Bryson Barnes (Utah State), Rocco Becht (Iowa State), Braylon Braxton (Marshall), Kevin Jennings (SMU), Kyle McCord (Syracuse), and Deshawn Purdie (Charlotte).
 
The Manning Award selected 29 quarterbacks for its Watch List in the preseason and added an additional 14 quarterbacks on October 24. Finalists will be selected in early December and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

In its first 20 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 14 different schools and from four different 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) has had five winners. The Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) has had four Manning Award winners. LSU (Daniels, Burrow, and Russell) now leads the way with three honorees, while Alabama (Bryce Young and Jones), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield), and Texas (McCoy and Vince Young) have each produced a pair of Manning Award winners.

All 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.