By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
The First Family of Football in Louisiana has no concrete LSU ties. But it does have four wins in Super Bowls and a lot of proximity to LSU.
Archie Manning is the patriarch of this quarterback family. He’s from Drew, Mississippi, and Ole Miss, but he has made New Orleans his home since 1971. He also runs the greatest off-season quarterback camp in the country in Thibodaux – the Manning Passing Acaemy, which will have its 31st edition next summer. He didn’t win any of the four Super Bowls or even make the playoffs during his NFL career with the Saints from 1971-82 before brief stints with the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings.
But when Archie finally had a supporting cast on offense in 1978 and ’79 in New Orleans, he was among the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He completed 291 of 471 passes for 3,416 yards that was second in the NFL in 1978, and he was named the NFC Player of the Year. In 1979, he led the sad sack Saints to their first non-losing season in history at 8-8 as he hit 252 of 420 passes for 3,164 yards and made the Pro Bowl for the second straight year.
Manning’s middle son Peyton Manning finished second for the Heisman Trophy in 1998. Archie finished third in 1969. Peyton won Super Bowl XLI with Indianapolis and Super Bowl 50 with Denver. Manning’s third son Eli finished third for the Heisman in 2003 at Ole Miss. Eli won Super Bowl XLII and XLVI with the New York Giants. Archie was the second pick of the 1971 NFL Draft, while Peyton and Eli were the first picks of the 1998 and 2004 drafts, respectively.
But the Manning Dynasty is not exactly revered in Tiger Stadium, where several members of the Manning extended family will be at on Saturday when No. 6 Texas (7-2, 4-2 SEC) plays at No. 21 LSU (6-3, 3-3 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
Because Archie’s grandson, Arch – the son of Archie’s oldest son Cooper – is Texas’ senior quarterback and the third Manning who will play in Tiger Stadium.
Archie, now 77, will not be at the game. He’s had some back issues. And he did have a beer poured on him while watching Eli play in the 2001 game at Tiger Stadium. Something to do, obviously, with the 35-24 loss and three TDs Eli threw that night.
And Archie did take a shot at LSU coach Lane Kiffin as he was about to leave Manning’s beloved Ole Miss after last regular season for LSU.
“He’s a narcissistic jerk coach,” Manning said of Kiffin, but it was supposed to be only for a group of Ole Miss fans he knows. But someone let it out.
“That’s OK, I’ve been called worse,” Kiffin said this week, and he has. “The Manning family is awesome.”
But if Arch leads the Longhorns to a win over 3.5-point favorite LSU, the Mannings should look out for a good pour.
“We’ve always had respect for the program, especially that environment,” Cooper told Jeff Duncan for a feature in NOLA.com this week.
Which is why Cooper and his wife Ellen will be in a suite.
“Our plan is to lay low,” he said. “Just get in, not make a big fuss and try to get out of there – alive.”
Ready, break. Sounds like a plan.
For if Texas beats LSU, it will knock the Tigers out of College Football Playoff contention, period. Just like when Archie and unranked Ole Miss upset No. 8 LSU, 26-23, on Nov. 1, 1969, in Jackson, Mississippi, as Manning completed 22 of 36 passes for 210 yards. That was LSU’s only loss in a 9-1 season. Without it, the Tigers likely would’ve played No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl playoff for the national championship.
Another problem LSU fans have with the Mannings is the fact that none of Archie’s three sons from Newman High in New Orleans went to LSU. Cooper signed with Ole Miss as a wide receiver in 1992, but never played because he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. Peyton decided to go his own way and to Tennessee in 1994. And Eli became the only Manning son to play at Ole Miss.
Even the most delusional, diehard LSU fan should be able to understand how a Manning wouldn’t go to LSU. Or maybe not.
A significant segment of LSU fans just get tired of hearing about the Mannings. They are everywhere. Peyton is the commercial king. And he and Eli do Monday Night Football telecasts. And that “Book Of Manning” documentary seems like it’s always on ESPN or the SEC Network. I know. I watch parts of it just about every time.
What also gets some LSU fans menstruating about the Mannings is the fact that the Mannings just have a way of beating LSU.
Archie was 2-1 against LSU as Ole Miss’ quarterback from 1968-70. Eli was 1-2 against the Tigers from 2001-03. But each are 1-1 in Tiger Stadium. That’s 3-3 overall. That’s only .500, but enough to get on LSU’s collective nerves – young and old.
When Ole Miss defeated LSU, 27-24, in Tiger Stadium in 1968, sophomore Archie Manning was 24-of-40 passing for 345 yards and two touchdown and rushed for another.
“Archie Manning 27, LSU 24,” a headline in the Baton Rouge paper said the next day.
As the second Manning to play at Tiger Stadium neared in 2001, several at the Baton Rouge Advocate planned to have Eli Manning as the cover shot on the first page of the Saturday game day section. When a huge name from the opponent comes to town, that often happens. But apparently someone was still sore about Eli’s dad’s two wins over LSU three decades previously and bumped Eli from the cover shot.
But when Ole Miss beat LSU, 35-24, that Saturday in Tiger Stadium in 2001, Eli’s picture made the Advocate. He completed 28 of 44 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns.
Now, will Arch break the 3-3 tie of his grandfather and uncle in similar fashion and give his family a 4-3 lead?
“I can’t believe my grandson is getting ready to play a game in Tiger Stadium,” Archie Manning said to his wife Olivia (Ole Miss’ homecoming queen in 1970), according to the NOLA.com piece. “It’s a huge game for Texas. It’s pretty special for anybody that gets a chance to play in Tiger Stadium.”
Arch watched games at Tiger Stadium several times before going to Texas. In the summer after eighth grade, he played in a 7–on-7 tournament on LSU’s practice fields. But that’s as close as he got to the Tiger Stadium he will walk into on Saturday night.
“It’s going to be really cool,” Arch Manning said the Manning Passing Academy last summer. “Obviously, I grew up going to games there every year. It’s a great crowd, and we’re excited for the challenge.”
Eli played for Newman against University High at the U-High stadium across Nicholson Drive from Tiger Stadium.
Peyton would have played against LSU in the 1997 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, but LSU just missed winning the West because of a late fumble by Alabama when it was about to wrap up a win over Auburn. So Auburn played East champion Tennessee instead.
And Cooper Manning would’ve played in Tiger Stadium in the 1992 Louisiana High School All-Star game, but the field was being repaired, and they moved the game to Memorial Stadium. Manning, an Ole Miss signee, caught a 29-yard pass on a touchdown drive in the East’s 26-13 win over the West on July 24, 1992.
The leading receiver in Newman history at the time with 125 receptions for 2,200 yards and 26 touchdowns, Manning caught 76 passes for 1,250 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior in 1991 and was named All-State for the second straight year. He had excellent timing with the Newman quarterback – sophomore Peyton Manning. The plan was for both of them to go to Ole Miss.
But later that summer as practices began at Ole Miss, Cooper started feeling numbness in his fingers and toes and was soon diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spine. He had surgery and never played football again.
“I never had anything against LSU,” Cooper Manning said in a Baton Rouge Advocate story the day before his last football game in that All-Star game. “I’ll be playing in Tiger Stadium the next four or five years. It’s kind of ironic that I’m here. I’ve grown up in Louisiana. I have a tremendous respect for LSU and the athletic program. I couldn’t just rebel against them.”
But he was going to be a Rebel with Peyton.
“Peyton and I were the Manning-to-Manning connection,” Cooper said in 1992. “If Peyton chooses to go to Ole Miss, I’ll help him break the Archie tradition. Archie Who?”
Now, Arch completes the circle for his dad and his grandad tonight. Arch was not as quotable as his high-school-age dad back in 1992 this week. That would’ve been fun. But don’t let him fool you. This game means the world to Arch Manning. He’s just had his game face on since Sunday.
“I really don’t have any legacy at LSU,” Manning said this week in an about-face from his Manning Passing Academy interview over the summer. “I’m from New Orleans, which is an hour from Baton Rouge. So, there’s no real connection. It’s not about me at all this week.”
Oh, but it is. Every Manning who plays against LSU has an LSU legacy as will Arch – not at LSU, but forever intertwined with LSU and with a forever connection to LSU. And this game is all about you, your dad, your uncle and your grandfather, and how you can end LSU’s season. Or LSU can likely end your playoff hopes, the way LSU did to your Uncle Eli in that 17-14 win at Ole Miss iin 2003 and went on to win the national championship.
This is the biggest game of Arch Manning’s career, much like Eli and Archie before him had some of the biggest games of their college careers against LSU.
You’ll always remember it Arch.
And before you go on to the NFL, take a media interview class with your grandfather, your father or either one of your uncles. They know how it’s done. And they know this Manning-LSU game.
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