MANNING OF THE HOUR : Knoxville Is Peyton Place for Now, but Will Archie’s Son Be in NFL Next Season?

His father, one of the greatest quarterbacks in college football history, spent 15 years picking himself up because he was stuck playing professional football for a franchise that inspired fans to put bags over their heads.

Peyton Manning, now as much a historian of football as its next superstar, says he can never be as good as Archie Manning, the Ole Miss legend and New Orleans “Aints” poster child. But unlike his father, who had an NFL record of 35-101-3, he may have the opportunity to chart his own course.

Manning, who stunned Southerners by choosing to attend Tennessee rather than his father’s alma mater, starts Saturday against UCLA on his way toward making his next huge decision come January: Will Peyton Manning leave college after his junior season to become the No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL draft?

The youngster hasn’t denied that he’s thinking about it, but might the determining factor be which losing franchise has that pick?

“Let me tell you this,” said Phil Simms, former quarterback for the New York Giants and now an NBC-TV announcer. “He’s coming out this year. He’s probably the most prepared quarterback to come into the league--maybe ever.”

The NFL has been starved for a Manning-like player. For the first time since 1988, no quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the last draft. Of the last six great prospects selected since 1993, how many brought the exciting potential of Manning? New England’s Drew Bledsoe? Washington’s Heath Shuler? Houston’s Steve McNair? Tampa Bay’s Trent Dilfer? Seattle’s Rick Mirer? Carolina’s Kerry Collins?

“He’s going to have to come out because it’s too big of a risk to go back,” Simms said. “And while I would never say this about any college player--hell no, I wouldn’t say it because a quarterback needs every snap he can get in college--this kid is ready to come play in the pros.”

Two years ago, Manning was standing in awe on the Rose Bowl sideline, gawking at the wonders of big-time football and shocked by a streaker. Archie and Olivia, his father and mother, were sitting in the stands because their son was going to be wearing a Volunteer jersey for the first time as Tennessee opened against UCLA.

“I remember all these parents being nervous because their kids were going to play, but not being nervous myself because our little freshman was like third or fourth on the depth chart,” Archie Manning said. “Then the first two quarterbacks got hurt and he was in there, and Lynn Swann, the sideline reporter for ABC-TV was interviewing us.

“I remember Lynn asking my wife how he looked and she said, ‘Young. Real young.’ ”

There won’t be much film to review for UCLA players who want to take a gander at the Manning who last played against the Bruins.

“Three snaps, all handoffs,” Manning said. “And that was that.”

More than 1,000 plays later, Manning is every sports magazine’s cover boy, as well as the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. Besides being 19-2 as a starter, he already has nine single-game and season offensive records, and is as obliging, outgoing and friendly as his father.

“People ask me if I want to be like my father,” said Manning, 20, who played little more than a half but passed for 298 yards and a touchdown in a 62-3 opening victory over Nevada Las Vegas. “I want to be the person he was, not necessarily the player he was. He was too good of a player.”

Simms laughed. “What else would you expect? Archie Manning is one of the finest human beings I have ever met, and this kid has spent his entire life sitting at the breakfast and dinner table with Archie and his wife.”

Archie Manning, however, knows his son.

“He’s being nice when he says those things about me,” he said. “Inside he wants to be better. I know that and that’s what I want. And let me tell you this, he’s better than I was. He just is.”

Manning already is so good that babies and newborn giraffes around here have been named “Peyton.” His 7-1 mark as a true freshman was the best winning percentage in Division I-A history. His top competitor for playing time, Brandon Stewart, took the hint and transferred to Texas A&M.; Manning carries a 3.51 grade-point average as a speech communications major with a minor in business, and during the off-season he throws passes to NFL receivers, who are running against NFL defenders.

He has met many of the game’s best players because of his father’s link to the game, and he likes to tell the story that Walter Payton thought that he was named after him until he learned that Peyton, was spelled as it was. He met George and Barbara Bush, and the former president knew who he was without prompting.

“That’s pretty heavy,” Manning said.

The Heisman Trophy race may come down to the duel with Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel--Tennessee plays Florida in the game after the Bruins--but Manning doesn’t sound like someone looking ahead.

“My dad and I have talked about the people who have won the Heisman, and they have let the trophy come to them,” he said. “They don’t try to win it.”

For those who remember Archie Manning with fondness, the sentimental vote will certainly tip in his son’s favor, but he may need no additional Heisman boost.

“When I saw him as a true freshman, he was the best I had seen since John Elway,” said Pat Haden, a former quarterback for the Rams and now an announcer for the Turner network.

Said an NFL general manager, “This kid will be right there with Elway when he comes out.”

When Elway was ready for the NFL, his family let it be known that it didn’t want him to become the next Archie Manning, and so the Elways declared from the outset that he would not play for the Colts if selected by Baltimore with the No. 1 pick in the draft.

“He’s the first guy in a while to be coming out as the No. 1 pick in the draft with that franchise potential,” said Elway, the No. 1 pick in the 1983 NFL draft. “I’ve seen him throw and he has a strong arm, he’s big, mobile and he’s got that bloodline. I think that will be the biggest help to him.”

The Manning bloodline runs deep with courage. After being selected the No. 2 player in the 1971 draft, behind Jim Plunkett by New England, Manning got battered for 11 seasons with the Saints before being traded to Houston and then on to Minnesota before retiring in 1984 with 125 touchdowns and 173 interceptions.

“I played against Archie Manning and I remember my teammate, Jack Youngblood, having so much respect for him,” Haden said. “We would beat the heck out of him, just devastate him, and he would come back and play the next play just as hard. I have as much respect for Archie Manning as any football player in any generation. If the youngster . . . “

The youngster is tough too, and might even be more competitive than the old man. Six weeks before he was supposed to report to Tennessee as a freshman, he arrived in Knoxville to work on his own. Just days after the end of the season he began organizing throwing drills indoors, almost coming to blows with the baseball team, which had made its own rightful claim to the practice facilities.

“I’ve had to work at learning how to relax,” Manning said, and that explains why his girlfriend is attending another university in another state.

“He doesn’t have time for a girlfriend on campus,” Archie said. “He’s lifting weights, watching film, organizing workouts, and we’ve had to tell him: Have fun.”

The younger Manning’s idea of fun is tracking down NFL players and pressing them with questions. He has asked Collins, for instance, “How prepared were you to take on defenses when you went into training camp as a rookie?”

He sought out Philadelphia quarterback Ty Detmer. “Tell me about the West Coast offense,” Manning said.

After Peyton had taken his official visit to Notre Dame before picking Tennessee, Coach Lou Holtz called Archie Manning and said, “In all my years of recruiting, no one has ever asked so many questions.”

Unlike most finalists, who had been advised earlier that they hadn’t won the Davey O’Brien Award as the outstanding quarterback in college football, Manning attended the award dinner in Dallas last year, anyway. He wanted to talk with the professional quarterbacks in attendance.

“I had two hours and I wasn’t interested in small talk because there were things I wanted to learn,” he said. “I hope they didn’t think I was being a pain.”

San Francisco quarterback Steve Young, who shook hands with the younger Manning at the O’Brien banquet, said, “There is one group of athletes that have the physical skills to be a quarterback, and he has that. And there is a group that has the [mental] skills to play the position. You only find a handful that have both of that going for them, and this guy appears to have it, and that’s why everybody is excited about him.”

Manning, though, sounds like someone still collecting football cards.

“I’d love to meet Troy Aikman,” he said. “He’s just one of the guys I really like watching. I mean, I’m 20 years old, every bit of 20, and these guys are something special.

“If I could have Jim Kelly’s toughness, Dan Marino’s quick release, Aikman’s great feet, Young’s intelligence and Brett Favre’s arm, dang, that would be a pretty good quarterback.”

Manning’s right there. Talk to NFL general managers, who are not allowed to talk publicly about any college undergraduate, and once they’ve wiped the drool off their chin, they will continue to gush positive.

“He’s the closest one I’ve seen to having all those great qualities you have in a Marino or Elway,” said one. “He’s going to make it big because no one has ever spent as much time as this kid preparing himself. He knows more about defenses than some of the guys playing in the league now.”

So does he come out of college after this season, pass on his college education for now, and begin dismantling NFL defenses?

“It goes against my strong feelings about education and against my instincts,” Haden said, “but if he has the chance to be No. 1 in the draft, I would advise him to leave school.”

Archie Manning, who stayed out of his son’s way while he was selecting a college, said they have yet to discuss the prospects of playing pro football.

“I run into NFL people every weekend because I’m broadcasting Saints games, but I believe Peyton when he says he’s not thinking about it now,” Manning said. “If he was someone immature and wasn’t ready to jump out, I’d be concerned. But I saw how he handled the college recruiting. Some kids become overwhelmed and can’t take it anymore and make a quick decision, but Peyton loved every minute of it.”

So far, he’s thriving in college, handling with aplomb the media attention and setting himself up as the NFL’s big reason for falling apart in 1996.

“Once it gets to be around the 11th or 12th week of the season, you’re going to have front offices saying, ‘I hope we lose,’ ” Simms said. “Come on, let’s be honest, Peyton Manning can do everything for a franchise. He takes an owner with a franchise worth $100 million and makes it $120 million. Look what it’s going to do for that franchise, the game, the league. Shoot, it’s got me excited just thinking about it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Passing Along Greatness

Statistics of Archie Manning, a star quarterback at Mississippi from 1968-70, and his son Peyton, also a star quarterback in his third season at Tennessee.

* ARCHIE MANNING

PASSING

*--*

Year Att Com Int Pct. Yds TD 1968 263 127 17 .483 1,510 8 1969 265 154 6 .581 1,762 9 1970 233 121 14 .519 1,481 14 Total 761 402 37 .528 4,753 31

*--*

RUSHING

*--*

Year Car Yds Avg TD 1968 110 208 1.8 5 1969 124 502 4.0 14 1970 94 113 1.2 6 Total 328 823 2.5 25

*--*

TOTAL OFFENSE

*--*

Year Play Yds Avg TD 1968 373 1,718 4.6 13 1969 389 2,264 5.8 23 1970 315 1,594 5.1 20 Total 1077 5,576 5.2 56

*--*

* PEYTON MANNING

PASSING

*--*

Year Att Com Int Pct. Yds TD 1994 144 89 6 .618 1,141 11 1995 380 244 4 .642 2,954 22 1996 24 18 1 .750 298 1 Total 548 351 11 .640 4,393 34

*--*

RUSHING

*--*

Year Car Yds Avg TD 1994 21 -26 -1.2 0 1995 41 6 0.1 5 1996 1 1 1.0 1 Total 63 -19 -0.3 6

*--*

TOTAL OFFENSE

*--*

Year Play Yds Avg TD 1994 165 1,115 6.7 11 1995 386 2,960 7.6 27 1996 25 299 12.0 2 Total 611 4,374 7.2 40

*--*