1-on-1 with Ole Miss great Archie Manning

Notes from Archie Manning interview

* The upcoming A&M-Ole Miss game is big for both schools. Ole Miss is kind of starting over right now after never really being in the position they have been for the past couple of years.  After being at the bottom of the conference, Ole Miss brought Hugh Freeze in to turn the program around. Although he wasn’t left with much, he has the kids playing hard and they have won some games they weren’t sure they were going to win. The Rebels were able to go to Tuscaloosa last week and play hard against Alabama which is very encouraging.

* The Grove is hard to describe. It’s kind of like a park in the middle of campus with green grass and a big open area. There is a stage for concerts and different events, however it’s not used much on game day. When he played at Ole Miss, people would come and park their car in The Grove and tailgate that way, but even back then, the Rebel faithful did things a little more classier than most. Ole Miss prides itself on good hospitality and being nice to people. The team walks through The Grove about an hour and a half or two hours before the game which is something fun to watch in addition to the regular tailgate festivities.

* Longtime Georgia Tech coach Bobby Dodd used to say, “Don’t buck the trend”. Right now, it looks like things are trending towards more open offenses, but he believes that college football seems to trend in cycles on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Certain things get popular here and there, and right now, the popular thing is the spread. The impressive thing is that these kids are throwing the ball well enough to run these pass-happy offenses at a high level. He believes that the various 7-on-7 tournaments that go on around the country in the offseason have really helped kids develop a much better arm than you saw 20 years ago in high school aged kids.

* He is very familiar with Coach Sumlin and what he did at Houston because Case Keenum came to the Manning quarterback camp a few times. He is very aware of what Sumlin is doing at A&M, he thinks it’s working and he’s very impressed with Johnny Manziel. He was able to watch a good portion of A&M’s game against Arkansas and also watched Manziel play earlier in the season, and there is no doubt that Manziel is an impressive young man. A&M fans are excited about the next few years with him and rightfully should be.

* When he sees a stellar freshman like Manziel, he starts thinking about how good they probably were in high school. A&M should feel really good about their entrance into the SEC with a youngster like Manziel.

* Back when his son Peyton was playing at Tennessee, the SEC East was the dominant division until it changed all of a sudden. The SEC East seems to be back on the rise and that Florida seems to be coming together. Florida has a huge game against LSU this weekend in The Swamp and he really isn’t sure who will come away with the victory. Another huge game in the SEC East this weekend is Georgia at South Carolina. Aaron Murray is a very impressive quarterback who is a great leader, but you should never doubt the coaching ability of Steve Spurrier. He’s not sure who will come out of the east, but the winner of the South Carolina-Georgia game will be sitting very pretty come Sunday.

* Former A&M quarterback Edd Hargett was his back up with the New Orleans Saints and he has nothing but nice things to say about him. One of his dearest friends in the world is R.C. Slocum and he was so happy when Slocum got the nod to join the College Football Hall of Fame.