Read Online The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks by Bruce Feldman - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bruce Feldman
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kid as skeptics. Those coaches also know they can find a way out of these nonbinding offers later in the process. But get hitched to a local kid, and that coach runs the risk of alienating local high school coaches. Finding out Manziel had committed to a school that was a thirty-three-hour drive from Kerrville, Texas, didn’t deter Rossley.
“I worked his mom and dad real hard,” he said. “I kept telling them, ‘You don’t want him going way out to Oregon. He’s a Texas high school legend. Let’s keep the legend in Texas.’ ”
Rossley believed he had bonded with Michelle Manziel the first time she met the coach. She came prepared to pitch her son’s talent, armed with his highlight tape and all his stats. “Oh, we don’t need those,” Rossley told her. “I’ve already seen him play. We want him.”
“She had gone to Texas and so many places and tried to get people to look at him, and they wouldn’t,” Rossley recalled of a spring visit. “The only thing I couldn’t give them at that point was that he had to be face-to-face with Coach Sherman. Sherman had to offer him that scholarship. It took a while till we finally offered him, and in the meantime he committed to Oregon. But I kept recruiting him and got him to come over to a few games. The third home game he came to that we played in September, he had an A&M shirt on. I knew we had him.”
MANZIEL ARRIVED IN COLLEGE Station and was fourth-team on the depth chart, behind starter Ryan Tannehill, a future first-rounder. Within the first month of the season, Manziel’s uncanny knack for evading tacklers and wriggling out of trouble at practice convinced Rossley that his fourth-stringer was actually A&M’s best Plan B.
“I told Johnny, ‘If something serious happens to Ryan, we’re gonna break that redshirt, and you’re gonna have to play and finish the year for us,’ ” Rossley said. “And he was agreeable to that. He impressed me every day in practice. He was a great practice player, a great competitor, and was accurate and had a strong arm. The playersall loved him and loved to be around him. Same as Favre, who was the life of the locker room.”
Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter, the former A&M defensive coordinator, said he got an idea of just how special Manziel was at mid-season that year. Manziel was the Aggies’ scout-team quarterback facing DeRuyter’s first-string defense as A&M prepped for Baylor and its speedy dual-threat QB Robert Griffin III. DeRuyter, after watching Manziel run for about 800 yards against his defense during the week, ripped into his players. He was convinced they had to be jakin’ it. But on game day, the Aggies beat Baylor by 4 touchdowns and held RGIII to 15 rushing yards on 12 carries.
“After the game,” DeRuyter said, “a couple of defensive guys came up to me and said, ‘I’m tellin’ ya, Coach, Manziel’s a lot harder to tackle than RGIII was.’ ”
That win over number twenty Baylor was one of the last Sherman and the Aggies would have in 2011. A&M lost four of its final five regular-season games, including against archrival Texas at home on a last-second field goal. Sherman, Rossley, and the A&M staff were fired. Kevin Sumlin was hired from the University of Houston, bringing his hurry-up spread offense run by his thirty-three-year-old offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, himself a onetime backup to Tom Brady with the Patriots.
Kingsbury grew up in New Braunfels, Texas, about an hour from Manziel’s hometown. Kingsbury had heard about the local legend Johnny Football. He loved the kid’s film. Kingsbury got a peek at his freakish athleticism playing basketball with some teammates, where the six-footer with the abnormally big hands was throwing down 360° dunks. The young coach told his friends that Manziel reminded him of a taller, more athletic version of Doug Flutie.
Manziel, though, struggled adapting to the new offense. Manziel toyed with the idea of quitting football and
“I worked his mom and dad real hard,” he said. “I kept telling them, ‘You don’t want him going way out to Oregon. He’s a Texas high school legend. Let’s keep the legend in Texas.’ ”
Rossley believed he had bonded with Michelle Manziel the first time she met the coach. She came prepared to pitch her son’s talent, armed with his highlight tape and all his stats. “Oh, we don’t need those,” Rossley told her. “I’ve already seen him play. We want him.”
“She had gone to Texas and so many places and tried to get people to look at him, and they wouldn’t,” Rossley recalled of a spring visit. “The only thing I couldn’t give them at that point was that he had to be face-to-face with Coach Sherman. Sherman had to offer him that scholarship. It took a while till we finally offered him, and in the meantime he committed to Oregon. But I kept recruiting him and got him to come over to a few games. The third home game he came to that we played in September, he had an A&M shirt on. I knew we had him.”
MANZIEL ARRIVED IN COLLEGE Station and was fourth-team on the depth chart, behind starter Ryan Tannehill, a future first-rounder. Within the first month of the season, Manziel’s uncanny knack for evading tacklers and wriggling out of trouble at practice convinced Rossley that his fourth-stringer was actually A&M’s best Plan B.
“I told Johnny, ‘If something serious happens to Ryan, we’re gonna break that redshirt, and you’re gonna have to play and finish the year for us,’ ” Rossley said. “And he was agreeable to that. He impressed me every day in practice. He was a great practice player, a great competitor, and was accurate and had a strong arm. The playersall loved him and loved to be around him. Same as Favre, who was the life of the locker room.”
Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter, the former A&M defensive coordinator, said he got an idea of just how special Manziel was at mid-season that year. Manziel was the Aggies’ scout-team quarterback facing DeRuyter’s first-string defense as A&M prepped for Baylor and its speedy dual-threat QB Robert Griffin III. DeRuyter, after watching Manziel run for about 800 yards against his defense during the week, ripped into his players. He was convinced they had to be jakin’ it. But on game day, the Aggies beat Baylor by 4 touchdowns and held RGIII to 15 rushing yards on 12 carries.
“After the game,” DeRuyter said, “a couple of defensive guys came up to me and said, ‘I’m tellin’ ya, Coach, Manziel’s a lot harder to tackle than RGIII was.’ ”
That win over number twenty Baylor was one of the last Sherman and the Aggies would have in 2011. A&M lost four of its final five regular-season games, including against archrival Texas at home on a last-second field goal. Sherman, Rossley, and the A&M staff were fired. Kevin Sumlin was hired from the University of Houston, bringing his hurry-up spread offense run by his thirty-three-year-old offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, himself a onetime backup to Tom Brady with the Patriots.
Kingsbury grew up in New Braunfels, Texas, about an hour from Manziel’s hometown. Kingsbury had heard about the local legend Johnny Football. He loved the kid’s film. Kingsbury got a peek at his freakish athleticism playing basketball with some teammates, where the six-footer with the abnormally big hands was throwing down 360° dunks. The young coach told his friends that Manziel reminded him of a taller, more athletic version of Doug Flutie.
Manziel, though, struggled adapting to the new offense. Manziel toyed with the idea of quitting football and
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