Mannion named frosh All America

BEAVER QB SEAN MANNION has been named to the 11th-annual Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-America Team.

Sean Mannion, a redshirt freshman, put up quite a season statistically. He played in all 12 games, starting 10, for the Beavers in 2011. A native of Pleasanton, Calif., Mannion threw for 3,328 yards ranking fourth in single season Oregon State history. Mannion completed 64.5 percent of his passes, including 16 for touchdowns, which ranks 11th on OSU’s single season list. Mannion already ranks eighth on OSU’s all-time passing yards list.

In the season’s third game Sept. 24 against UCLA, Mannion became the youngest quarterback to start at OSU since Jonathan Smith as a redshirt freshman, Oct. 31, 1998 against California. In just his second career start, Mannion set Oregon State single game records with 40 completions and 66 attempts at Arizona State, Oct. 1. He finished the season with 11 straight games of 200 or more passing yards, a feat matched only by Derek Anderson (13 times in 2003) in the last decade at OSU.

With his FWAA recognition, Mannion is the first OSU quarterback to earn freshman All-America accolades. He joins fellow Beavers Scott Crichton, who earned first team freshman All-American honors from Sporting News, Phil Steele, Yahoo!Sports.com, CBSSports.com and College Football News, and Dylan Wynn, who garnered freshman All-America honorable mention from College Football News following the 2011 season.

The FWAA team is selected by an 11-person panel of nationally-prominent writers led by Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Both true-freshmen and redshirt-freshmen were considered or the team.