Johnny Manziel drops in on The Beliucci Hour to talk Aggie football

On National Signing Day 2017, Johnny Manziel paid a visit to Billy, Alex and The Beliucci Hour crowd to talk about recruiting and Aggie football, including some of his favorite A&M memories.

• I got a chance to go back and say hey to Sumlin, got a chance to go back and say hello to everybody. It was good, got to walk around campus and see some old faces, to be back and see a bunch of Aggies in maroon with all these Aggie rings, it doesn’t get much better than this. No matter how bad times get, no matter what goes on, I’ll always have this place to fall back on.

• It was really cool, I actually graduated early and went through the process a little bit sooner. I was talking to coach Sherman the other day for probably 45 minutes, and just looking back on my career and my time here. That man had such an influence on me, obviously when I got a chance to play it was through coach Summy, but coach Sherman was the guy who instilled a lot of morals and values and took a hardass mentality to us when we got there. He gave me a chance to get a chance to play at one of the biggest universities in the state of Texas - and not go to the University of Texas - it’s awesome.

• It (recruiting) is hard, there’s so many guys. People don't really want to drive 40 to 50 minutes to see a guy out of Kerrville, TX. Mike (Evans) was playing basketball, doing his thing on the basketball court, he really hadn’t gone all in on the football route. Misses happen, but the best guys are the ones who find something from nothing. One of the best guys I saw today was Jim Turner. That guy knows offensive line front. You look at what he did with Jake, Luke, Cedric, with Ifedi. He found Mike, and to have me and him on the scout team our first year, we went out everyday to try and make ourselves better. I think it ended up paying off.

• It was a motivation being a 3-star. I had been to all these camps, and whether it was just being too short or not going out and having a good day. For whatever reason I was a little overlooked. To go out and have the success that we had in my sophomore and junior years, and then to build on that my senior year. A&M came around, I remember Dat, Coach Sherman, Coach Rossley, and Coach Turner coming to a game in San Antonio. We threw the ball 75 times and set a state record, I remember it like it was yesterday. We won a lot of games playing against the best competition in San Antonio.

• Thursday and Friday in Houston I’ll be signing autographs at Katy Mills Mall. I wanted to come back here, this is home for me. I talked to Coach Mazzone, gonna throw some 7-on-7 with these young guys. I want to help these young guys any way I can. All I want is for this University to be the best it can be.

• I was supposed to be going to Atlanta to see the NFC Championship game, the weather was bad in Atlanta so I got a last minute flight to Boston. I reached out to Martellus Bennett the day of, and he got back to me right away. Aggies taking care of Aggies was in full force right there. He doesn’t forget where he came from, he doesn’t forget the roots, he doesn’t forget the ring on his finger. So I really appreciate him for doing that, hopefully he can go get another ring on his finger.

• My favorite part about being back in Aggieland is just all the memories. To come from being a 3-star guy, from finishing my first year and not really knowing if I wanted to play that much. I remember reaching out to the baseball coaches, I was really close to giving up. The ride that I’ve been on from where I am today, to where I started is crazy. From third on the depth chart after the first spring with Coach Sumlin. To come back in the fall and winning the job in eight days. And then having that first game here in Florida, that first touchdown in the SEC against Florida. I had a for sale sign in my yard after that loss. To end that year as the hottest team in the country, and going into the Cotton Bowl and doing what we did to Oklahoma.

• I just want to say thank you to everybody here. This is where my support comes, this place probably means more to me than you guys will ever know. Through it all I don’t think I’ve done the best job of repressing this University. But I will tell you one thing, from this day forward I will do any and everything to make sure Aggieland is at the top of my priority list. I love this school, I love everyone with an Aggie ring on their finger. This place means the world to me.