Houston’s Week 6 win in Manhattan did more than just pad the Cougars’ record. It put Conner Weigman squarely in the spotlight.
Houston rolled past Kansas State 35-16 on the road Saturday, and the offense had the kind of clean, relentless day that can carry a team through conference play. The defense held up its end, but the story of the game was the way Weigman controlled everything from the first snap to the last.
The senior quarterback from Cypress, Texas, finished with 242 passing yards and four touchdowns, completing 19 of 30 passes for a 63 percent clip. He added six carries for 21 yards on the ground and posted a 96.3 QBR, his second-best mark of the season so far.
Every one of those touchdown passes went to redshirt junior tight end Patrick Overmyer.
That performance earned Weigman a pair of weekly honors. He was placed on the Davey O’Brien Great 8 for Week 6, marking his second time on that list this season after Week 4 against Georgia Southern. Last year, he made the Great 8 three times, including the postseason edition after his outing against LSU in the Texas Bowl.
Weigman was listed with Gunnar Stockton of Georgia, LaNorris Sellers of South Carolina, BYU’s Bear Bachmeier, Gio Lopez of Wake Forest, Navy’s Jackson Gutierrez, Braden Atkinson of Oregon State, and Blake Baker of Louisiana Tech. Baker, like Weigman, is also from Cypress.
He’s already on the Davey O’Brien Award midseason watch list, and he picked up another nod Monday as the Shriners Children’s East-West Bowl Monday Morning Quarterback for his Week 6 showing. Weigman also moved into the top 15 of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award race.
Through six weeks, Weigman has 19 total touchdowns and only one interception. Fifteen of those scores have come through the air, which ranks ninth nationally. His 85.2 total QBR also sits ninth in the country, and he’s the only Big 12 quarterback in the top 10 in that category.
For Houston, that kind of production matters. The Cougars are right in the middle of the race for the Big 12 championship, and Weigman’s command, experience, and arm talent have given the offense a different gear this season. Right now, he looks like one of the conference’s most overlooked quarterbacks.
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