By Robert Wilson
OLE MISS’ CORRAL FINIALIST FOR MANNING AWARD
A current Ole Miss quarterback is one of 12 finalists for an award named after two former Ole Miss quarterbacks.
Ole Miss sophomore quarterback Matt Corral was named a finalists for the Manning Award, created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in honor of the college football accomplishments of former Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning, his son and former Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning and his son and former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning. It is the only quarterback award that takes the candidates’ bowl performances into consideration in its balloting.
Corral currently ranks top 10 nationally in passing yards (2,744), passing TDs (24), completion percentage (.729), passing efficiency (187.3) and yards per pass attempt (10.8). He has posted six 300-yard games of the season, the third-best single-season effort in school history. Corral, who has earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors three times this season, set a school record with 513 passing yards earlier this year.
Corral is fifth on Ole Miss’ single-season list with 24 passing TDs, while sitting sixth on the career charts with 32 scoring passes. Corral is 10th all-time in career passing yards at Ole Miss with 4,335 yards.
The other 11 finalists are Alabama’s Mac Jones, Florida’s Kyle Trask, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, OhioState’s Justin Fields, Brigham Young’s Zach Wilson, Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall, North Carolina’s Sam Howell, Iowa State’s Brock Prudy, Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, Central Florida’s Dillon Gabriel and Notre Dame’s Ian Book.
Ole Miss plays at LSU Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on SEC Network.
ROGERS HOLDS SEC PASSING STREAK:
Mississippi State freshman quarterback Will Rogers – the Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Football Player of the Year last season from Brandon High – ended his consecutive passing streak without an interceptionlast week in the loss to Auburn, but he kept mark of the having the longest streak among SEC this year. Rogers ended his streak at 176 when he was intercepted early in the second quarter. He hadn’t been intercepted since the fourth quarter of the Alabama game, a streak of 13 consecutive quarters without an interception. Florida’s Kyle Trask was also interception Saturday against LSU ending his streak short of Rogers. Rogers fell short of breaking Dak Prescott’s school record of 238 passes without an interception in 2015. Rogers tied Prescott’s record of 52 passes without an interception in a game when Rogers did it against Georgia.
Rogers has completed 71.7 percent of his passes this season, on pace to break Prescott’s school record of 66.2 percent, set in 2015. He ranks third in the SEC behind Alabama’s Mac Jones (76.4) and Ole Miss’ Matt Corral (72.9) and ranks sixth in the nation.
MSU plays host to Missouri Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on SEC Network Alternate channel.
MISSISSIPPIANS IN SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
There are two players from Mississippi on Alabama’s two deep depth chart. Sophomore defensive end Byron Young from West Jones High (No. 47) is second string behind LaBryan Ray and has played in all 10 games and has 28 tackles, 12th highest on the team. He also has 6.5 tackles for loss, one sack and one fumble recovery. Redshirt freshman cornerback Brandon Turnage from Lafayette County High (No. 7) is one of the two players listed as second-string cornerback behind Josh Jobe. Turnage has played in two games and has one pass breakup. Redshirt freshman defensive back Jalen Edwards from Columbus is the only other Mississippian on Alabama’s roster. Florida does not have a Mississippian on its roster.
Alabama plays Florida Saturday at 7 p.m. on CBS for the SEC Championship. This is the 10th meeting between the two teams for the SEC Championship. Alabama leads the series 5-4. Alabama defeated Florida and SEC Player of the Year, quarterback Shane Matthews from Pascagoula High, 28-21 in the first SEC Championship Game in 1992.
