Johnny Manziel

Jonathan Paul Manziel (born December 6, 1992), also known by his nickname, Johnny Football, is an American football quarterback for the Texas A&M Aggies. He was nationally recruited out of high school as a dual-threat quarterback with an impressive ability to extend plays. In 2012, Manziel debuted for the Aggies as a redshirt freshman in Kevin Sumlin's Air Raid offense during A&M's first season in the SEC.

Manziel was given the nickname "Johnny Football" by fans and students at Texas A&M before the start of the 2012 season.

On December 8, 2012, he became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. He is also the first freshman to win the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award.

On January 4, 2013, Manziel led Texas A&M to victory 41-13 in the 2013 Cotton Bowl Classic against Oklahoma.

Early life
Manziel was born in Tyler, Texas, to Michelle and Paul Manziel. He has a younger sister who is in high school.

He grew up playing a variety of sports, including basketball, baseball, golf and football. At Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas, he focused on baseball and football. However, it was in football that sportswriters, coaches, and parents said he "achieved folk hero status" and was compared to quarterbacks like Brett Favre, Michael Vick, and Drew Brees.

High school
At Tivy High School he was coached by Mark Smith. He played football all four years in high school and began with the freshman team his first year. By the end of his first season, he played with the varsity team as a receiver. He began his sophomore year primarily as a receiver, but started the fourth game at quarterback. He shared that position for the remainder of the season, finishing with 1,164 yards passing, 806 rushing and 408 receiving for a combined 28 touchdowns. Manziel's junior year was his first as starting quarterback, and he completed that season with 2,903 passing yards, 1,544 rushing yards, 152 receiving yards and 55 touchdowns. That year, he was voted All-San Antonio Area Offensive Player of the Year as well as District 27-4A MVP.

During Manziel's senior season, he compiled 228-of-347 (65.7%) passing for 3,609 yards with 45 TDs and 5 INTs. He also had 170 carries for 1,674 yards and 30 TDs. He had 1 TD reception and returned a kickoff for a touchdown for a combined 77 TDs. That year, he was honored as District 28-4A MVP (unanimous selection), Class 4A First Team All-State (AP), San Antonio Express-News Offensive Player of the Year (second year in a row), the Associated Press Sports Editors Texas Player of the Year, Sub-5A First Team All-Area (SA Express-News), No. 1 QB in Texas by Dave Campbell's Texas Football, DCTF Top 300, PrepStar All-Region and Super-Prep All-Region.

For Manziel's three years as a starter, he completed 520 of 819 passes (63.5 percent) for 7,626 yards and 76 touchdowns, rushed 531 times for 4,045 yards and 77 touchdowns and caught 30 passes for 582 yards and another five touchdowns. He was the only quarterback in America named as a Parade All-American his senior year, and he was also named The National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) Senior Athlete of the Year in football.

He was highly recruited out of high school; in addition to Texas A&M, he received offers from Baylor, Colorado State, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech, Oregon, Rice, Stanford, Tulsa, and Wyoming.

Johnny was named to the NUC All World Game (started by David Schuman and National Underclassmen Combine) in 2010 where he rushed for over 100 yards and threw for over 200. It was the first time Manziel dominated on a national stage. He played in the game as a teammate with Oregon QB Marcus Mariota.

2012 regular season
Texas A&M faced uncertainty at the quarterback position when Ryan Tannehill left for the National Football League after the 2011 season. Manziel performed well during Spring ball and fall practices and won the starting job over Jameill Showers and Matt Joeckel before the season began. His first game was supposed to be against Louisiana Tech in Shreveport, Louisiana on Thursday, August 30, 2012, but the game was postponed until October 13 due to Hurricane Isaac hitting the Louisiana coast two days prior to game time. Consequently, Manziel's college football debut was played as a redshirt freshman against the Florida Gators before a home crowd at Kyle Field.

Although Manziel began the season in relative obscurity, his play against Arkansas in which he broke Archie Manning's 43-year-old total offense record gained him some attention. Two games later, Manziel surpassed his own total offense record against #24 Louisiana Tech, becoming the first player in SEC history to have two 500+ total offense games in one season. After Texas A&M's blowout of Auburn in game eight in which Manziel accounted for 3 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns through only the first half plus one series in the second, Manziel began showing up in national Heisman Watch lists.

Manziel was launched into the national scene after he led Texas A&M to a 29-24 upset over #1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In that game, Manziel accounted for 345 of A&M's 418 yards of offense, including two passing touchdowns. In following days, Manziel became the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy in most national watch lists and polls due to his performance during the game combined with other Heisman frontrunners faltering.

On November 24 during the game against the Missouri Tigers before a home crowd, Manziel left the game with an apparent knee injury late in the first quarter. He returned to the field for the next series of downs wearing a knee brace and finished the game with 439 yards of total offense, including 3 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns. During the game, he broke the single season record for offensive production in the SEC with 4600 yards, surpassing Cam Newton and Tim Tebow, notable recent Heisman Trophy winners. He also became the first freshman and only the fifth player in NCAA history to pass for 3000 and rush for 1000 yards in a season, reaching that mark two games earlier than any other player. He won the SEC Freshman of the Year Award and College Football Performance National Freshman of the Year Award. Manziel won the Davey O'Brien Award on December 6 and the Heisman Trophy on December 8, making him the first freshman ever to win either award.

College career statistics
Bold Opponent Names = SEC conference games

Full-season awards and nominations

 * 2012 Heisman Trophy winner (first freshman to win)
 * 2012 Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award winner (first freshman to win)
 * 2012 Manning Award winner
 * 2012 First-team All-American by:
 * ◦ Associated Press
 * ◦ Football Writers Association of America
 * ◦ Walter Camp Football Foundation
 * ◦ Sporting News
 * ◦ ESPN
 * ◦ CBS Sports
 * ◦ Scout.com
 * ◦ Sports Illustrated


 * 2012 Sporting News College Football Player of the Year
 * 2012 AT&T ESPN All-America Player
 * 2012 SEC Offensive Player of the Year
 * 2012 SEC Freshman of the Year
 * 2012 All-SEC First-Team Quarterback
 * 2013 Cotton Bowl Classic - Offensive MVP
 * 2012 College Football All-Bowl Team
 * Finalist, Maxwell Award
 * Finalist, Walter Camp Player of the Year

Weekly awards

 * 2-time Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week
 * 3-time AT&T All-America Player of the Week
 * 3-time SEC Offensive Player of the Week
 * 9-time SEC Freshman of the Week

NCAA records & notes

 * FBS Freshman record: rushing yards by a quarterback, season (1,410)
 * FBS Freshman record: total offense, season (5,116)
 * Most games with 300+ passing yards and 100+ rushing yards, career (3)
 * FBS record: First Freshman (and 5th player ever) in FBS history with 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, season
 * FBS record: Rushing yards by a Quarterback in a Bowl Game 229 yards
 * First Freshman to win the Heisman Trophy
 * First Freshman to win the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award
 * First Freshman to win the Manning Award
 * Only the 4th player to have 20 Passing TD's & 20 Rushing TD's, season

SEC records & notes

 * Most yards total offense, game (576, breaking Archie Manning's 1969 record of 540 yards, and his own record of 557 set two weeks earlier)
 * Most yards total offense, season (5,116, breaking Cam Newton's 2010 record in two fewer games)
 * Most yards total offense, game average (383.3, breaking Tim Couch's 1998 record, of 377.4 yards)
 * Highest yards per play average (50 plays minimum), game (10.71, against Arkansas on September 29, 2012, breaking Steve Tanneyhill's record of 10.0 yards)
 * First SEC quarterback to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in one season

Texas A&M records & notes

 * Record for total yards in a season with 5,116.
 * Record for passing yards in a game with 453 against Arkansas on 9/29.
 * Record for yards total offense in a game with 576 against Louisiana Tech on 10/13. Broke his previous record of 557 set 2 weeks prior.
 * In 10 games, Manziel had 4 of the top 10 games in total offense in Texas A&M history.
 * Logged 10 straight games with 300 or more total yards.
 * The Third A&M quarterback to surpass 3,000 passing yards in a season.
 * The 2nd Most Passing Yards in a Single Season.
 * The Most Rushing TD's in a Single Season.
 * The 3rd Most Passing TD's in a Single Season.
 * Tied for 7th Career Passing TD's.
 * Tied for 13th Career Rushing TD's.
 * 10th in School Career Passing Yards.
 * 20th in School Career Rushing Yards.

Personal
On June 29, 2012, before he was chosen as Texas A&M's starting quarterback and before his first college game, Manziel was arrested and charged with three misdemeanors—disorderly conduct, failure to identify, and possession of a fictitious driver's license. These charges stemmed from a late-night fight in College Station, Texas.

Police reports state that Manziel was with a friend who directed a racial slur at a man on the street. The man then approached the two of them trying to get at the friend, but Manziel placed himself between the two men saying his friend didn't mean it and he was going to take him home. The man continued pushing against Manziel to reach the other, and eventually Manziel pushed back. At this point, the man swung at Manziel who then began fighting back. Shortly afterward, the bicycle patrol officers arrived. Manziel, who at the time was 19, presented a fake Louisiana driver’s license to police officers showing himself to be 21. Manziel was taken into custody and reportedly spent the night in jail.

Prior to the 2012 season during the SEC Media Days, when reporters asked Coach Sumlin about the incident with Manziel, he replied by saying,
 * "There's been a lot of things he has had to do internally, first of all to get back in the team's good graces and continue to be on the team. He's handled those and has probably done more than people even know. And there's something to that because there's a respect for the position. You have to be able to lead yourself before you can lead a team, and in order to do that you have to have respect to do that. Internally, there has been some things that he has had to complete just to get back to this point and put the uniform on again and he's continuing through that. So that's where that is."

Manziel continued to excel both on and off the field, and was named starting quarterback for Texas A&M only one month later. Because of Coach Sumlin's policy of not allowing freshmen to give media interviews, Manziel was unable to speak to reporters about his arrest until the 2012 regular season was completed. When reporters asked about the incident during his first press conference which occurred on November 27, Manziel spoke frankly about the experience:


 * "I've had to make a lot of changes in my life," he said. "I'm really more aware of my surroundings and what goes on in my life, and I've surrounded myself with a great group of people. I have a great family, a great group of coaches here that really all care about my well being and me moving forward as a person...It was a critical mistake in my life, and it was something that I had to learn a lot from."