Johnny Football Was More Middle School Trickster Than Wizard

In Texas A&M's only SEC appearance in Razorback Stadium Manziel showed why he shouldn't have been NFL first round pick

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Sep 28, 2023 12:21 PM EDT
Original:
Sep 28, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In the midst of a statistical dive into the past decade of games between Arkansas and Texas A&M, a headline flashed across the top of the cell phone screen.

"Michael Gambon, Dumbledore Actor in 'Harry Potter' Dies, Age 82"

As can happen when deep focus gets interrupted by such a jarring distraction out of nowhere, the death of what most will remember as the angrier, slightly darker of the two Dumbledores portrayed in the "Harry Potter" series began to swirl with thoughts on Texas A&M like memories in Dumbledore's pensieve, and soon an image formed of the ghost of Alan Rickman in full Snape form sitting in the stands of AT&T Stadium last year. He's about halfway up the lower level being careful to swish and flick his wand, casting a wingardium leviosa spell as Razorback quarterback KJ Jefferson dives toward the end zone, causing the ball to fly into the air into the hands of Tyreek Chappell and again to Demani Richardson.

As these little thought breaks often tend to wander, it arrived at a random A&M college professor speaking a prophecy years earlier foretelling Johnny Manziel as the Chosen One who would lead the Aggies into a future that would make the Kyle Field expansion and the often unfulfilled expectation of winning big in College Station a thing.

It was while imagining who in A&M history would fill in the role of Hagrid to tell Manziel "You're a wizard Johnny. A wizard. And a thumpin' good'n I'd wager. Once you been trained up a little." that the spell that had led to this little side quest immediately wore off.

Johnny Manziel was no wizard. That much was much was revealed on the lone night the Aggies made their way into the Ozarks to face Arkansas in an SEC showdown. I happened to be one of the only 72,613 people on the planet to have seen Arkansas and A&M play an SEC game in Fayetteville on what was a rare appearance at a Razorback game in an unofficial capacity on my part. It was an anniversary gift for my wife who is an avid Arkansas fan.

The Hogs were a bit off my radar at the time. Work drew my focus elsewhere and where we lived back then meant no way to record the few games that were on in our market and no access to the radio broadcast. The tumultuous year with John L. Smith stepping in as a glorified substitute teacher, ruining the one modern era season where the Razorbacks were in the preseason national championship conversation, had knocked Arkansas off the national broadcast map for the most part.

Bret Bielema had surprisingly left Wisconsin to pick up the pieces at Arkansas and tabbed the son of one of his coaches, Brandon Allen, to step into the unenviable role of filling the shoes of Razorback legends Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson.

When it came time to drive to the stadium, a huge storm picked up, dropping rain so hard it was difficult to see I-49 as we slowly made our way north. On the pregame radio show, Manziel found himself second fiddle to Allen. That's because just over an hour before the game was supposed to kick off, no one knew if he would be able to play.

Allen was injured. Best case scenario, he would enter the game somewhere around 70% and might not be able to throw the ball far, if at all. It was possible Brandon's freshman brother, Austin, might have to step in against the No. 10 Aggies.

But, as time for kick-off loomed just a couple of minutes away, the rains stopped, the older Allen brother was announced the starter, and the only player to draw disdain from my wife anywhere close to the levels of Cam Newton, SEC referees and anyone who ever wore a Kentucky basketball uniform, Johnny Manziel, hit the field.

As a journalist trained to watch games without emotion, which makes it easier to appreciate well-coached teams and great players, I was excited to see the magic of Manziel. All the bravado and what turned out to be autobiographical money hand gestures didn't bother me much. There had been low odds Arkansas was going to win heading into the game and they had gotten even lower with the Allen news, so my plan was to kick back and enjoy watching the Wizard of College Station do his thing.

The only problem was, once the game began, there was no wizard to be seen. There was very little true skill at all in Manziel. It became painfully obvious as the night wore on that Johnny Football was nothing more then a middle school level magician pulling slight of hand and basic parlor tricks.

Did he dance around and scramble in the trademark Manziel way and sometimes break free when he shouldn't have? Sure. But there was no driving force or obvious thought to how he moved. It was erratic, much like a group of junior high boys playing backyard football after the one guy left to rush the quarterback had hit "Five Mississippi!"

Manziel wandered aimlessly back there. He wasn't looking downfield with purpose, scanning routes. He was, instead, pulling the only trick he had – find Mike Evans' number and heave the ball somewhat near it.

You see, despite throwing for 261 yards and two touchdowns, Manziel wasn't the wizard. He wasn't the Chosen One. It was Evans all along. Without Evans, Johnny Football never happens. Instead, you're left with what everyone saw once he hit the NFL.

Time and again, Manziel simply threw the ball up for grabs. Pass after pass that should have gone for incompletions or been picked off got ran down by Evans. It became evident that just about any scrambling quarterback who could buy a little time and heave the ball a decent ways could have created what happened at Texas A&M once Kliff Kingsbury let go of the leash the previous season. Another player of similar skillset might have actually been better given the off-field issues with Manziel.

As we walked up the hill that night after what had been a valiant effort by an overmatched Arkansas team in a 45-33 loss that was in question most of the night, we couldn't help but talk about how shocking it was to see Manziel look so unskilled as a quarterback. We spoke about how some team is going to fall in love with the marketing and not pay attention to how he's just winging it up into the night sky with Evans on the other end bailing him out over and over again.

People will forever remember that as the night a Johnny Football A&M team came to town and took down the Razorbacks, but make no mistake about it. That was no Manziel team. It was all smoke, mirrors and false walls.

The wizard who hit Arkansas with a confundus charm that night was Evans, not Manziel. It's just unfortunate A&M fans don't realize he was the true Chosen One who built the castle at Kyle Field.