COLLEGE STATION, Tex. – Like him or hate him, Texas A & M’s Heisman Trophy winning sophomore quarterback Johnny Manziel is a force of nature in the SEC and college football.
His constant attempts to defy logic no matter what the odds of successe on any given play have made Maniel a great individual talent. Johnny Football put on another signature performance here yesterday, completing of 28 of 39 passes for 464 yards and five touchdowns and rushing for another 98 against top-ranked Alabama (2-0) here yesterday at Kyle Field.
“Johnny was Johnny-like out there,” A & M coach Kevin Sumlin claimed..
Although the sixth ranked Aggies (2-1) lost, 49-42, in this early season SEC West showdown, Manziel showed he is capable to putting up the numbers necessary to win another Heisman Trophy.
Whether he will get the votes is another story. There are over 900 electors out there and some may not want to vote for the same player twice.
Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, who threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns, is now the flavor of the week with Heisman voters, some who were looking for any reason not to vote for Manziel for reasons that have nothing to do with his on the field performances. The way Manziel has handled his celebrity has also put him under a giant microscope, leading critics to question his maturity after he was asked to leave the Peyton Manning Passing Academy this summer for missing a meeting after partying too hard the night before and unproven allegations he received money for autographing thousands of items three different memorabilia dealers.
But no one can or should question his competitive resolve and his resilience or his extraordinary talent.
Even after the Aggies fell behind 35-14, with 9:33 in the third quarter, there was never any quit in this team.
“I told the guys on the sidelines not to worry about it,” he said when he met the media. “I knew we could score and we were it to the end.”
This has been a long week for Manziel, who had to deal with another expose by ESPN, which obtained — and aired a photo a photo of Manziel signing for South Florida autograph broker Drew Tieman in early January. In the picture, which two sources have confirmed to ESPN as legitimate, Manziel, in a long-sleeve maroon shirt, is standing over a covered pool table signing photos of his image while Tieman oversees the process. The picture, according to sources, was taken in the Ft. Lauderdale apartment in which Tieman was living at the time.
Manziel did not wish to share his thoughts on the latest allegations.
“I’m not taking any questions on that,” he said. “I’m here to talk about the game.”
It was a wild one. Texas A @ M put up 628 yards total offense on the defending national champions. Alabama picked up 568. Neither team seemed fazed by the amount of hype connected to the game.
“To tell you the truth, I was less nervous today then normally,” Manziel said. “We didn’t have any pressure. All the pressure was on them. We just wanted to come in and play our heart out.”
Texas A & M played like a Top 10 team that will only get better once its defense grows up.. ‘Bama played like a team that is trying to make history by winning its third consecutive national championship.
“Our season is not over,” Manziel said. “Last year we beat them in Tuscaloosa and they went on to win the national championship. This is college football. Anything can happen.”
For Alabama, this was sweet revenge for last year’s 29-24 loss to the Aggies last November in Tuscaloosa. Manziel created his own Heisman Trophy moment that day. In retrospect, I have to admit Manziel’s personal brilliance in that game pushed him to the top of my Heisman ballot, where he stayed for the rest of the year.
Johnny Manziel is the biggest name in the game these days. CBS, which carried the game, even devoted a single to follow his every move. Manziel showed few flaws, cutting a 42-21 deficit to 42-35 when he threw a record setting 95 yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Mike Evans with 8:04 to play and gave the Aggies one final chance at an onsides kick when he threw a four-yeard Td pass to Malcom Kennedy with 15 seconds remaining.
But as well as he played, there were times when his daring, swashbuckling attitude can get him in trouble.
Johnny Football shredded Alabama’s defense in the first quarter, rolling up 204 yards of total offense with some Herculean scrambling efforts. The magic only lasted so long though. After Alabama tied the score at 14-14 on an 44-yard touchdown pass from McCarron to DeAndrew White early in the second quarter, Manziel took the Aggies on a 71-yard drive that included a great escape from six tacklers and set the wheels in motion a 12 yard Hail Mary completion for a first down– eventually putting the Aggies in scoring position with a second and goal on the Tide four-yard line.
Then, Manziel tried to put a punctuation mark on what up to then was a brilliant individual performance, but he wound up throwing a poorly conceived pass that was intercepted by Alabama’s Cyrus Jones at the goal line, costing the Aggies a chance to retake the lead and giving the Tide new found momentum against an average A & M defense.
Just 1:32 later, McCarron threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Bell to give the Tide a 21-14 lead and the Tide used it as a springboard for an impressive road victory that took shape when Alabama safety Vinnie Sunsieri intercepted another Manziel pass early in the third quarter and returned it 73-yards for another touchdown.
But it is a fair tradeoff for the excitement and electricity he brings every time he steps on the field.
No one is saying Manziel is a choir boy, but he plays the game so beautifully, I wouldn’t mind watching a rematch between these two teams in the BCS championship game this January in Pasadena.
