INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Back on Track
Peyton Manning's year to
remember
by Ivan Maisel
Posted: Wed November 12, 1997
A funny thing happened to Peyton Manning on the way to the 1997
Heisman Trophy: He had his worst game in four years. Though
Tennessee defeated South Carolina 22-7 on Nov. 1, Manning
completed just eight of 25 passes for 126 yards with no
touchdowns and one interception. The performance had even
Peyton's father fretting. "I never told him this," Archie said
last Saturday as the Volunteers prepared to play Southern
Mississippi, "but I knew coming back this year was going to set
him up where he couldn't do anything but fail."
But against the Golden Eagles, who had the nation's
seventh-ranked pass defense, Peyton completed 35 of 53 passes
for 399 yards—all season highs—and four touchdowns (he also
rushed for a TD) as the Volunteers pulled away to a 44-20
victory. Manning was neither intercepted nor sacked. Early in
the game, when Southern Mississippi's aggressive, stunting
defense deployed no down linemen, Tennessee one-upped the Golden
Eagles by going to a no-huddle attack. "Everything we can do in
the formation we're in is available to Peyton in the no-huddle,"
Vols offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe says. "He knows
everything I know. You can turn him loose."
Manning's career seems straight out of a Chip Hilton novel, so
why should his senior season with the Volunteers—which he
wanted to play so much that he put off the NFL for a
year—depart from the story line? Fifth-ranked Tennessee is 7-1,
and only three sub-.500 opponents stand between the Vols and the
SEC championship game. An invitation to the Orange Bowl, and
with it a shot at the national title, isn't out of the question.
If that doesn't come, Manning most likely will finish his
college football career playing in the Sugar Bowl, in front of a
hometown crowd in New Orleans.
This season's football possibilities, which out of superstition
Manning refers to obliquely as "what's out there," aren't the
reason he decided in March to return to school. As he put it
over lunch last Friday, "I didn't have enough memories." He's
collecting some this fall. Manning, who already has his
bachelor's degree in speech communications, is doing graduate
work in sports management. As part of an independent study
course under Andy Kozar, an exercise professor who's researching
the career of Tennessee's College Hall of Fame coach, Gen.
Robert Neyland, Manning will interview former Vols All-Americas
George (Bad News) Cafego and Doug Atkins.
Even before he began working under Kozar, Manning had studied
Tennessee football history so closely that, when shown a picture
of a Tennessee All-America from the 1930s, he said, "That's
Beattie Feathers."
"I really appreciate a student like him," says Kozar, who was an
All-SEC running back in 1952, Neyland's last season. "I told
him, 'You really ought to consider getting a Ph.D. and being a
professor.' Of course, who the hell am I to say that?"
The rest of Manning's senior year has been dedicated to
creating, rather than collecting, memories. He goes out to
dinner with his line on Tuesdays for 10-cent chicken wings.
After he led Tennessee to a 38-21 win over Alabama on Oct. 18,
he came out of the locker room to conduct the Vols' Pride of the
Southland Band in a rendition of Rocky Top. "A
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. During an open week in
October, Manning and a few teammates drove about 45 miles to
Rockwood, Tenn. (pop. 5,500), because former mayor Mike Miller
invited them for a speaking engagement and a barbecue. Manning
smiled as he recalled the trip: "You know that next year I'm not
going to be in Rockwood, Tenn., talking football with a bunch of
fans."
In December, Manning will fly to New York City to appear on The
Late Show with David Letterman and to accept an $18,000
postgraduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation
and Hall of Fame as one of 11 Division I-A scholar-athletes.
There's also the prospect of the Heisman, among other awards,
and a chance at the national championship. A lot of memories
remain to be made.
Issue date: November 17, 1997
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