Freshman quarterbacks in the Southeastern Conference normally struggle, but Johnny Manziel is not the average freshman. He’s not even the average quarterback.
Through six games, the Texas A&M redshirt freshman signal caller has completed 67.4 percent of his passes for 1,680 yards with 14 touchdowns and three interceptions.
Manziel is just as much a threat with his legs. The freshman currently leads the SEC with 676 rushing yards and is tied with South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore with touchdowns on the ground, an SEC-best.
“The scheme they run fits him pretty good,” said LSU sophomore defensive tackle Anthony Johnson. “He is young, but he is a great football player who can make plays.”
After senior quarterback Ryan Tannehill went to the Miami Dolphins in the first round of the NFL draft, Manziel has keyed the Aggies’ 5-1 start to the season. He leads the No. 5 scoring offense in the nation, which has put up an SEC-high 47 points per game.
He posted an SEC record 557 yards of total offense against Arkansas, only to better that with 576 yards against Louisiana Tech on Saturday. That total was the third-best ever recorded by a Division I freshman.
Manziel is set to shatter the NCAA record for total offense by a freshman. Jared Lorenzen set the record at Kentucky with 3,827 yards in 2000 — Manziel is on pace for 4,712.
“He is a pretty dynamic player,” said LSU junior linebacker Lamin Barrow. “It’s not just his legs; he can make plays with his arm. That dual threat is something we need to watch out for.”
LSU junior defensive end Sam Montgomery said facing Florida sophomore Jeff Driskel and South Carolina junior Tyler Shaw the last two weeks has helped prepare the defense to stop Manziel.
“Really, all of the teams we have played have had good mobile quarterbacks,” Montgomery said. “This is a world where quarterbacks not only pass the ball but can run and be crafty. That makes them more difficult to defend.”
Manziel came to A&M out of Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas, where he threw 45 touchdowns and rushed for another 30 while totaling more than 5,000 all-purpose yards in his senior season.
He did a little bit of everything for the team as he also caught a touchdown and ran back a kickoff for another score.
Manziel’s high school coach, Mark Smith, said the numbers are even more impressive considering he only played all four quarters four times his entire senior season.
“He was phenomenal,” Smith said. “He made my job of coaching really easy, he was a good kid and all he did was make plays.”
After Manziel graduated, Smith left Tivy to become the head coach at Converse Judson High School in San Antonio, Texas.
According to his high school offensive coordinator, Julius Scott, it is Manziel’s confidence and competitiveness that allow him to be so successful with so little experience.
“God has blessed that boy with a lot of ability, but he’s blessed a lot of people with ability,” Scott said. “He has a spirit about him where he is the most competitive person I have ever met. He always believes he can win, and he makes everyone around him believe the same.”
Despite the gaudy high school numbers, Manziel was just a three-star recruit according to ESPN Recruiting Nation.
At 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, he was rated as the No. 39 quarterback in his recruiting class and chose A&M over offers from Oregon and Stanford.
“If a guy doesn’t come in the right package, colleges and pros don’t always peruse him very fast,” Scott said. “They can’t measure his intangibles. I promise you, it is not a surprise to any of us that know Johnny Manziel that he is having as much success as he is.”
Manziel could not be interviewed for the story because Texas A&M has a policy against freshman football players talking to the media.
