K-State’s Thompson Named Semifinalist for Witten Award

(Courtesy of Kansas State Athletics)

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State senior quarterback Skylar Thompson is one of 20 semifinalists for the fourth-annual Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award, the award’s committee announced Tuesday.

The award is the first college football honor to focus primarily on a player’s leadership, both on and off the field. Thompson inclusion on the semifinalist list marks the second time a Wildcat has been up for the award as Dalton Risner was one of three finalists for the award in 2018. Thompson is one of two semifinalists from the Big 12 this year, joining Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

Despite suffering a season-ending injury in October, Thompson has firmly established himself as one of the team leaders. Thompson is a member of watch lists for the Maxwell and Manning awards, in addition to the Wuerffel Trophy, given to college football’s most active player in the community. Thompson lost both his mom and his grandfather to cancer within seven months of each other when he was a child, and he has used the experience as motivation to be active in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program.

On the field, Thompson is ranked in the top 10 in 14 different career categories at K-State, while he is just the second player in school history to total 5,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a career. Thompson as engineered five fourth-quarter touchdown drives in his career to either tie or take the lead, which ranks second by a K-State signal caller since 1990. One of those was this season at No. 3 Oklahoma when he threw for a career-high 344 yards to lead the Wildcats to their first road win over a top-five team in school history.

Three finalists will be named for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award on Wednesday, December 16. The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on February 16, 2021.

Kansas State travels to face No. 17 Iowa State this Saturday, a 3 p.m., game that will be shown on FOX.