Manziel Wins Prestigious O'Brien Award

The Texas A&M football program saw unprecedented success in its inaugural SEC season finishing 10-2. Thursday night saw the fruits of those successes when redshirt freshman Johnny Manziel took home the Davey O'Brien Award for the best quarterback in the country.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Davey O’Brien Foundation today announced Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel as the 2012 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award® Winner. Todd Blackledge, the 1982 Davey O’Brien Winner, presented the award to Manziel during The Home Depot College Football Awards at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. He will be honored at the 36th Annual Davey O’Brien Awards Dinner on Feb. 18, 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Manziel was named a finalist for the Davey O’Brien along with Kansas State’s Collin Klein and Ohio State’s Braxton Miller. The Davey O’Brien National Selection Committee selected the winner with the Fan Vote accounting for five percent of the total vote. The committee was asked to consider the following criteria: quarterback skills, athletic ability, academics, reputation as a team player, character, leadership and sportsmanship.

During Texas A&M’s first season in the SEC, the redshirt freshman guided the Aggies (10-2, 6-2 SEC) to their best final BCS ranking since 1998, while notching a berth to the AT&T Cotton Bowl against former Big 12 opponent Oklahoma. Manziel also helped lead the Aggies to a signature win on the road against the then top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. After the impressive performance, during which Manziel accumulated 345 total yards and two touchdowns, Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin stated “No moment is too big for him.”

The explosive signal caller from Kerrville, Texas has had a record-setting season. Manziel has passed for 3,419 yards and rushed for 1,181 yards, becoming just the fifth NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision player and first freshman to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. He ranks second in the nation in points responsible for (21.50 points per game) and total offense with 383.33 yards per game. Manziel also leads the SEC with 1,181 rushing yards and 43 total touchdowns while setting the conference record for total yards in a season with 4,600.

Manziel, is Texas A&M’s first Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award winner. The last player from the SEC to win the award was Cam Newton in 2010.